All practice questions

For all non-zero real numbers $a$, $b$, and $c$, which of the following is equivalent to the expression $\frac{a(b - c) - b(a - c)}{c}$?

In laboratory settings, biologists have observed New Caledonian crows fashioning hooks from twigs, this tool-making ability, which represents a capacity to create tools, allows them to extract grubs from deep tree cavities.

Which choice most clearly and concisely replaces the underlined portion of the sentence?

In 1811, twelve-year-old Mary Anning and her brother Joseph discovered the fossilized skull of an ichthyosaur along the cliffs of Lyme Regis. At that point in time during those days, people did not yet understand the concept of extinction, so they initially assumed the skull belonged to a crocodile.

Which choice provides the most clear and concise wording for the underlined portion of the sentence?

Unlike oil paints, which remain wet and workable for days, egg tempera dries almost immediately upon application. This rapid drying time prevents artists from blending colors directly on the painting support. [1] For instance, to create the illusion of three-dimensional form, tempera painters must build up layers of color using thousands of tiny, overlapping brushstrokes.

Which choice provides the most logical transition from the preceding sentence to the highlighted sentence?

The historical museum recently acquired a collection of rare maps, these documents, which are currently at this time on display in the main gallery.

Which choice is the most concise and grammatically correct?

Designing on the Wing

In the late 1980s, Japan’s high-speed Shinkansen trains faced a major engineering obstacle that threatened their continued expansion: noise pollution. As the trains traveled through narrow mountain tunnels at speeds exceeding 150 miles per hour, they compressed the air ahead of them, creating a high-pressure wave. Upon exiting the tunnel, this compressed air expanded rapidly, producing a deafening sound known as a "tunnel boom" that could be heard over a mile away. The source of the problem was the train’s bullet-shaped nose, which pushed a wall of air forward rather than slicing through it cleanly.

Eiji Nakatsu, the train’s chief engineer and an avid birdwatcher, looked to the natural world for a solution to this mechanical dilemma. He focused on the kingfisher, a predatory bird that dives from the air into water to catch fish. Nakatsu reasoned that if a bird could transition smoothly between two mediums of drastically different densities with barely a splash, a train could do the same when transitioning from the open air into a compressed tunnel. Water and air, though differing in density, behave similarly under fluid dynamic principles.

By redesigning the train's nose to mimic the long, wedge-shaped beak of the kingfisher, Nakatsu’s team succeeded in eliminating the tunnel boom entirely. ________

Which choice provides the most logical and effective conclusion to the passage by highlighting the multiple positive outcomes of the train's new design?

The following is an excerpt from a draft of an essay about New York City's postal history.

In the late 1890s, New York City struggled to manage its rapidly growing volume of mail, as horse-drawn wagons routinely became gridlocked in congested streets. To resolve this crisis, the post office installed a network of underground pneumatic tubes that propelled mail canisters beneath the city streets at speeds of up to thirty miles per hour. At its peak, this subterranean network moved millions of letters daily across Manhattan and Brooklyn.

[1] ___________________________________________________________________. In 1918, the federal government suspended funding for the pneumatic system in order to prioritize the war effort. Following the war, the postal service chose to invest in automobile trucks, which could carry larger volumes over greater distances, and by 1953, the last of the city's pneumatic mail tubes were permanently shut down.

Which choice most effectively introduces the second paragraph by establishing its main focus?

Urban Apiaries

[1]
In cities around the world, a new kind of agricultural movement is buzzing on rooftops and balconies. Honeybees are finding comfortable homes on the roofs of high-rise apartment buildings, office towers, and community centers. This practice, known as urban beekeeping, has surged in popularity over the last decade as city residents look for creative ways to support local ecosystems and produce their own food.

[2]
Many people assume that cities are concrete deserts unfriendly to wildlife, but research shows that urban areas can be highly beneficial to pollinators. Rooftop gardens, backyard plots, and city parks provide a surprisingly diverse diet for bees. Unlike large industrial agricultural fields, which often grow only a single crop for miles, cities offer a wide variety of flowers, trees, and ornamental plants that bloom at different times of the year. This botanical diversity helps keep honeybee colonies healthy and resilient against disease.

[3]
[1] For instance, many city dwellers now have access to hyper-local honey, which is sold at neighborhood farmers' markets. Additionally, rooftop hives serve as unique educational tools, teaching school children and community members about the vital role pollinators play in our food systems. Ultimately, these urban apiaries help citizens feel more connected to the natural world.

Which of the following sentences, if added at Point [1] in Paragraph 3, would provide the most effective introduction to the paragraph?

The following passage contains a blank where a punctuation mark is missing. What punctuation mark should be placed in the blank to ensure the sentence is punctuated correctly?

In 1952, computer pioneer Grace Hopper completed the first compiler, a program that translated English-like instructions into machine code. Previously, programmers had to write code in tedious binary sequences. Hopper’s development, which was a major breakthrough in computer science, revolutionized programming by allowing software to be written in a way that was much easier and simpler for humans to read and write.

Which of the following options represents the most concise and grammatically correct version of the underlined portion?

Sea otters use rocks to crack open the shells of their prey, which is a behavior that they repeat again and again to access the food inside.

Which choice is the most effective and concise version of the underlined portion of the sentence?

To decipher Linear B, classicist Alice Kober built a massive database of paper cards, sorting them into grids to analyze the relationships between grammatical endings. By cataloging grammatical inflections, she determined that the unknown language was inflected, which meant that word endings changed depending on their grammatical function. This detailed card system of hers, which was highly structured and organized in a grid format, was what ultimately laid the groundwork for Michael Ventris to crack the script.

Which of the following alternatives to the underlined portion is the most concise and grammatically correct?

[1] In 1956, Malcom McLean, a former trucking magnate, revolutionized global trade by introducing the standardized shipping container. [2] Before this innovation, cargo was loaded and unloaded piece by piece in a process known as break-bulk shipping, which was slow, labor-intensive, and prone to theft. [3] McLean's system allowed goods to be packed directly into large metal boxes that could be seamlessly transferred between trucks, trains, and ships. [4] Many early dockworkers belonged to powerful labor unions that negotiated wages and working conditions. [5] Consequently, the cost of loading cargo dropped from nearly six dollars a ton to just a few cents, facilitating a massive expansion of international commerce.

The writer is considering deleting Sentence 4 from the passage. Should this sentence be kept or deleted?

For decades, the scientific community believed the ocean floor was a flat, featureless plain. In the 1950s, geologist Marie Tharp sought to prove otherwise by meticulously plotting sonar data collected from research vessels. Working at her desk at Columbia University, Tharp transformed raw numbers into detailed draft maps, revealing a massive, continuous underwater mountain range known as the Mid-Atlantic Ridge. [1] Her colleague, Bruce Heezen, initially dismissed her discovery, but Tharp’s persistence eventually revolutionized the field of plate tectonics.

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

'Sonar technology had originally been developed during World War I to detect enemy submarines.'

Should the writer make this addition?

In 1897, the Polish-French physicist Marie Curie began investigating uranium rays for her doctoral thesis. The research project, which she conducted in a drafty shed, soon led to the discovery of radioactivity. The materials that she analyzed during these experiments were highly toxic, but her groundbreaking work changed science forever.

Based on the passage, which option represents the most grammatically correct punctuation for the underlined portion?

After living in the dry desert of Arizona for a decade, Maria found it difficult to get accustomed with the constant humidity of southern Florida.

Which choice is the best replacement for the underlined portion?

Passage Excerpt:

In 1938, Marjorie Courtenay-Latimer, a South African museum curator, was inspecting the catch of a local fishing trawler when she noticed an unusual blue fin. Under a heavy pile of sharks, she found a five-foot-long fish with shimmering blue scales and limb-like fins. [Underlined Portion] then contacted J.L.B. Smith, a local chemistry professor and amateur ichthyologist, to help identify it.

Which choice most effectively emphasizes the immediate, hands-on efforts Courtenay-Latimer made to save the specimen from deteriorating before it could be identified?

Though the city council had initially predicted that the new transit system would be self-sustaining, the project’s ongoing expenses currently at this time continue to exceed revenue, resulting in a deficit that lacks sufficient funds.

Which of the following choices best maintains the sentence's meaning while avoiding redundancy and grammatical errors?

Passage Excerpt:

In 1696, Henry Winstanley began constructing the first Eddystone Lighthouse on a notorious reef off the coast of Plymouth, England. The lighthouse was a wooden structure, highly ornate and adorned with carvings and a grand drawing room. [1] Winstanley was so confident in his design that he famously wished to be inside the lighthouse during "the greatest storm that ever was."

Which choice most effectively emphasizes the extreme vulnerability of the lighthouse's design and location to the harsh elements of the sea?

Read the passage below. Which punctuation mark should be placed in the blank to ensure the sentence is punctuated correctly?