All practice questions

Stepwells, known as *baoris* or *vavs* in western India, are subterranean architectural marvels constructed to harvest rainwater in arid regions. Descending multiple stories into the earth to reach the water table, these structures feature elaborate flights of stone steps and pillared pavilions designed to provide shade. [1] In addition to their practical function, stepwells served as vital social hubs and places of worship, particularly for women who gathered there daily to collect water.

The writer is considering adding the following sentence at Point [1]:

Rainwater harvesting is still practiced in many dry climates around the world today.

Should the writer make this addition?

[1]
In 1856, Eunice Foote, an American scientist and women's rights campaigner, conducted a series of simple yet groundbreaking experiments. Using an air pump, two glass cylinders, and four thermometers, she tested the effects of sunlight on different gases. She discovered that a cylinder filled with carbon dioxide became much hotter than one filled with common air, and that it took far longer to cool down.

[2]
Consequently, Foote’s contributions were largely overlooked for over a century, while John Tyndall, an Irish physicist who published similar findings three years later, was long credited with discovering the greenhouse effect. It was not until 2011, when a retired geologist stumbled upon Foote’s paper in an annual scientific journal from 1856, that her pioneering role was finally recognized.

[3]
Based on her observations, Foote reached a prophetic conclusion. She wrote that an atmosphere of carbon dioxide would give our Earth a high temperature, effectively describing the fundamental mechanism of what we now call the greenhouse effect.

[4]
However, despite the significance of her findings, Foote was not permitted to read her own paper at the annual meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science; instead, it was read aloud by a male colleague.

To make the essay most logical and cohesive, where should Paragraph 2 be placed?

The following is a draft of the beginning of a passage about the history of synthetic dyes:

[1] __________________________________________________ Eighteen-year-old chemistry student William Henry Perkin was working in his home laboratory in London, attempting to synthesize quinine, a scarce drug used to treat malaria. Instead of the clear medicine he hoped to produce, his experiments left behind a dark, sludge-like residue. However, when Perkin attempted to wash the beaker with alcohol, he noticed that the substance dissolved to reveal a brilliant, fade-resistant purple hue.

Which of the following sentences, if added at the beginning of the passage, would best introduce the main topic of the passage?

Located in the heart of the city, the community garden serves as a vibrant green space for residents. Volunteers gather every Saturday to plant seeds, pull weeds, and harvest fresh vegetables. [X] This collaborative effort has not only beautified the neighborhood but has also fostered a strong sense of community among the participants.

The writer wants to add a sentence at this point (indicated by [X]) that emphasizes the diverse backgrounds of the volunteers who participate in the garden. Which choice most effectively accomplishes this goal?

The following passage is an excerpt from an essay about medieval European architecture. Read the passage and answer the question that follows.

Many architectural historians credit the invention of the flying buttress to the builders of Notre-Dame de Paris in the late twelfth century [1] , indeed, early versions of these external arched supports can be found in much older Byzantine and Romanesque structures across Europe, albeit in a less prominent form.

Which of the following alternatives to the underlined portion is grammatically correct and establishes the most logical transition between the two clauses?

The following passage is an excerpt from an essay about nineteenth-century science.

In the mid-nineteenth century, Irish physicist John Tyndall set out to study the radiative properties of gases, aiming to understand how the atmosphere traps heat. He expected that the most abundant atmospheric gases, nitrogen and oxygen, would be the primary absorbers of solar radiation, [1] furthermore, his rigorous testing demonstrated that these dominant gases were virtually transparent to infrared rays, while trace gases like water vapor and carbon dioxide absorbed heat greedily.

Which choice provides the most logical transition between the two clauses while maintaining correct sentence structure?

Read the following passage and answer the question.

Many scientists initially believed that the deep ocean floor was completely devoid of life. Consequently, the discovery of hydrothermal vents in 1977 revealed thriving ecosystems powered by chemical energy rather than sunlight.

Which of the following choices provides the most logical transition in the underlined portion of the passage?

The following sentences are from a draft of an essay about ancient acoustics. Arrange the sentences to form a cohesive paragraph that logically transitions from introducing the Theater of Epidaurus to explaining the scientific basis for its unique acoustic properties.

The following paragraphs are from a draft of an essay about the preservation of the Terracotta Army. For the sake of the logic and cohesion of this essay, arrange the paragraphs in the most logical order.

The following sentences are from a paragraph about the history of green fluorescent protein (GFP). Arrange these sentences in the most logical sequence to form a cohesive, unified paragraph, ensuring that the introduction and conclusion are placed effectively.

The following paragraphs are from an essay about the origin of the ice cream cone. Arrange the paragraphs in the most logical order to make the essay cohesive.

The writer wants to organize the following sentences into a cohesive paragraph that introduces the Montreal Biosphere, details its physical structure, explains the engineering solution used to support it, and concludes with its modern significance. Arrange the sentences in the correct order to fulfill this goal.

Paragraph 1

[1] In the mid-twentieth century, Russian linguist Yuri Knorozov proposed that the ancient Maya writing system was logo-syllabic, meaning it combined symbols representing whole words with symbols representing phonetic syllables. [2] He demonstrated that the glyphs could be read by matching the sounds of spoken Mayan words to specific signs. [3] This skepticism delayed widespread acceptance of his breakthrough for nearly thirty years, during which Mayan epigraphy remained largely stagnant. [4] Decades later, however, researchers built upon his insights to systematically crack the remainder of the writing system. [5] Today, Knorozov is widely celebrated for having revolutionized our understanding of pre-Columbian Mesoamerica.

The writer wants to add the following sentence to the paragraph:

*However, this phonetic approach was initially dismissed by Western scholars who believed the glyphs were strictly logographic.*

To make the paragraph most logical, this sentence should be placed:

The following paragraph is from an essay about the history of the pencil:

[1] The first pencils were developed in England during the sixteenth century, following the discovery of a massive graphite deposit. [2] Locals quickly realized that this newly found material was excellent for marking their sheep. [3] Because graphite is naturally soft and messy, people soon began wrapping the graphite sticks in string or wood. [4] Today, pencils are manufactured globally using a refined blend of graphite and clay.

The writer wants to add the following sentence to the paragraph:

"This protective casing kept the dark graphite from staining the writer's fingers."

To make the paragraph most logical, where should this sentence be placed?

The following is a draft of an essay about a pioneering paleontologist.

[1]
Born in 1799 in a seaside town in Dorset, England, she was not trained as a scientist. Yet, she spent her days searching the cliffs of Lyme Regis for what she called "curiosities." Her discoveries of prehistoric marine reptiles, including the first ichthyosaur and plesiosaur skeletons ever correctly identified, challenged the scientific community's understanding of the history of the Earth.

[2]
At the time, geology was a field dominated by wealthy gentlemen who often purchased Anning's finds to display in museums. Although she possessed an extraordinary ability to locate and reconstruct fossils, her gender and lower social status prevented her from fully participating in the scientific societies of nineteenth-century Britain. Despite these barriers, her work laid the groundwork for major developments in paleontology and evolutionary theory.

Which of the following sentences, if placed at the beginning of the passage, would best introduce the main topic of the essay?

Although the impact of the 1883 Krakatoa eruption on global temperatures is well-documented, its influence on nineteenth-century British art remains a subject of debate. Some art historians argue that the vibrant, crimson sunsets in William Ashcroft’s pastel drawings from the mid-1880s were direct records of the volcanic aerosols that dispersed worldwide.

[1] Ashcroft, who resided in Chelsea, London, created thousands of these quick sketches from his west-facing window, starting just months after the cataclysm.

Others, however, contend that his palette was merely a continuation of a pre-existing British aesthetic tradition of dramatic twilight scenes, suggesting the volcanic dust was coincidental to his style.

The writer is considering deleting Sentence 1 (marked by [1]) from the passage. Should the sentence be kept or deleted?

The following is an excerpt from a passage about the history of timekeeping in the United States.

[1]
____________________________. Before the late nineteenth century, towns and cities across the United States set their clocks by the sun, resulting in thousands of local times. For instance, noon in Chicago was several minutes different from noon in Milwaukee. This localized timekeeping caused massive confusion for the rapidly expanding railroad network, which required precise timetables to prevent train collisions and coordinate schedules.

[2]
To solve this problem, railroad companies implemented a system of four standard time zones in November 1883. Despite initial resistance from local governments that preferred "God's time," the efficiency of the railroad zones quickly won over the public, eventually leading Congress to pass the Standard Time Act of 1918.

Which choice most effectively introduces the paragraph and establishes the primary focus of the passage?

The following paragraph is from an essay about the decipherment of ancient scripts:

[1] For decades after their discovery in 1900, the clay tablets of Knossos remained an indecipherable enigma, their script dubbed "Linear B" by archaeologists. [2] Believing that the key lay in mathematical analysis rather than guesswork, classicist Alice Kober meticulously cataloged symbol frequencies on thousands of hand-cut index cards. [3] Her focus eventually narrowed to grammatical inflections, the shifts in word endings that denote grammatical relationships. [4] These grammatical variations, which scholars later named "Kober's triplets," provided the first concrete proof that the script represented an inflected language. [5] By arranging these related characters into a grid, she was able to map relationships between phonetic values long before the script was deciphered.

The writer wants to add the following sentence to the paragraph:
"Specifically, she documented instances where a root word appeared in three distinct variations depending on its grammatical function."

To make this paragraph most logical, this sentence should be placed after which sentence?

A scientist studying the rainforest canopy drafted the following paragraph:

For decades, biologists studying the tropical rainforest had to rely on observations made from ground level, which offered only a limited view of the ecosystem. [1] However, the development of canopy cranes in the 1990s allowed researchers to easily ascend into the treetops. This new access opened up a previously unreachable world, revealing that the majority of rainforest organisms actually live high above the ground.

The writer wants to add a sentence at Point [1] that emphasizes the physical difficulty of climbing into the rainforest canopy before the invention of canopy cranes. Which choice most effectively accomplishes this goal?

The following passage is about the Svalbard Global Seed Vault:

The Svalbard Global Seed Vault, located on a remote Norwegian island, houses millions of seed samples to safeguard global food supplies. The facility is buried deep within a mountain, where the surrounding permafrost helps maintain freezing temperatures. [X] This ensures that the seeds remain viable for decades, preserving genetic diversity for future generations.

Given that all choices are grammatically correct when inserted except where noted, the writer wants to insert a sentence at point [X] to emphasize the specific protective features of the vault's physical structure and building materials against external heat and moisture. Which choice most effectively accomplishes this goal?