All practice questions

Consider the following excerpt from an argumentative essay advocating for academic policy reform:

"To maximize intellectual rigorousness and prevent echo chambers, universities should require all graduate researchers to publish their preliminary, unvetted datasets open-access prior to formal peer review. Immediate public exposure is the sole guarantor of scientific integrity; thus, open data access will render fraudulent fabrication virtually impossible, thereby fully restoring public trust in scholarly literature."

Which of the following counterarguments or counterexamples most effectively undermines the author's central claim while avoiding logical fallacies or dismissive reasoning?

A five-year study of ancient papyrus scrolls from the Ptolemaic period established that every authenticated royal decree issued between 250 BCE and 200 BCE bore the official seal of either the High Chancellor or the Royal Vizier, but never both. The study also revealed that any decree bearing the seal of the High Chancellor was recorded in Greek, whereas any decree addressing agricultural taxation was recorded exclusively in Demotic. Furthermore, during this fifty-year period, no decree recorded in Demotic was validated by the High Chancellor.

Consider each of the three choices separately and select all that apply. Which of the following inferences can be validly drawn from the passage above?

While the literary critic conceded that the late poet’s final collection was undeniably mournful, she vehemently rejected the reviewer’s claim that the verses were _______, maintaining that their dark tone reflected a dignified grief rather than an exaggerated, self-indulgent gloom. Which word best completes the sentence to maintain the intended contextual tone and connotative meaning?

In GRE Sentence Equivalence, candidates must evaluate word choices against sentence context to eliminate false synonyms (words with similar dictionary definitions that fail to produce equivalent sentence meanings) and topically related distractors (words relevant to the passage subject that lack a valid synonymous partner). For a sentence analyzing a historian's unproven claims about ancient trade routes, match each candidate option pair on the left with its correct analytical classification on the right.

Complete the passage by filling in the blank with the word that best fits the contextual transition signal.

Conservationists in a tropical nature reserve deployed an array of automated bioacoustic monitoring units designed to record the distinct vocalizations of the endangered giant pangolin. Over a six-month period, the monitoring units registered zero pangolin vocalizations in the reserve's northern quadrant, prompting researchers to conclude that giant pangolins no longer inhabit that area of the reserve.

Which of the following is an assumption upon which the researchers' conclusion depends?

Read the passage below and provide the single word that appropriately completes the sentence based on its contextually appropriate secondary meaning.

While nineteenth-century historians of astronomy frequently framed Johannes Kepler’s formulation of his third law of planetary motion as a triumph of pure empirical induction, this narrative obscures the metaphysical underpinnings of his methodology. Kepler’s working notebooks reveal that his search for numerical harmonies was heavily governed by a Neoplatonic conviction that the geometric architecture of the cosmos reflected a divine aesthetic. Rather than passively observing planetary data compiled by Tycho Brahe and deriving mathematical patterns solely from empirical regularities, Kepler dynamically adjusted his mathematical models to align with pre-existing harmonic ratios derived from musical theory and Pythagorean geometry. Consequently, when anomalies between Brahe’s observational data and Kepler’s initial harmonic models emerged, Kepler did not immediately abandon his speculative framework; instead, he treated the empirical discrepancies as compositional nuances within a larger cosmic polyphony, revising his mathematical constructs until empirical precision and harmonic symmetry converged. This synthesis suggests that the conventional dichotomy between rigid empirical inductivism and speculative rationalism fails to capture early modern scientific practice, where aesthetic commitments frequently served as heuristic guides rather than impediments to empirical accuracy.

Which of the following can be inferred from the passage regarding Kepler's response to discrepancies between Brahe's observational data and his own initial models?

A student drafting a GRE Issue essay wrote the following draft sentence:

"Although algorithms have undeniably improved logistics, relying entirely on automated decision-making in legal settings is kind of a bad idea because it gets rid of the human touch needed to handle messy edge cases."

Which of the following revisions best replaces the informal and imprecise phrasing with precise diction and a formal academic tone suitable for a high-scoring GRE essay?

While early twentieth-century historians often portrayed the industrialization of Northern cities as a process driven entirely by domestic capital and local labor migration, recent archival research reveals a far more international dynamic. Specifically, records from late nineteenth-century transatlantic merchant banks demonstrate that foreign investment accounted for nearly thirty percent of the infrastructure capital deployed in midwestern manufacturing hubs. Furthermore, despite persistent political rhetoric emphasizing domestic self-reliance, federal tariff policies during this era were frequently adjusted to accommodate European creditors holding municipal transit bonds. Consequently, economic growth in these industrial centers was deeply linked to global financial shifts, rendering local markets susceptible to European economic downturns long before the widespread integration of global markets in the mid-twentieth century.

Based on the passage, which of the following can be inferred regarding midwestern manufacturing hubs in the late nineteenth century?

Read the following excerpt from a municipal transportation committee memo:

'Over the past two years, traffic congestion during peak commuting hours in the city of Apexville has increased by 20 percent, while public bus ridership has declined by 12 percent. During this same period, neighboring Riverdale constructed a multi-line suburban light-rail system, resulting in a 25 percent reduction in commuter highway traffic. To reverse the decline in public transit patronage and alleviate traffic congestion, Apexville should immediately allocate funds to construct a light-rail system identical to Riverdale's.'

What is a critical unstated assumption the author makes regarding the commuters and infrastructure of Apexville compared to Riverdale?

For decades, historians of science attributed the rapid adoption of early nineteenth-century electrochemical theory primarily to its practical utility in isolating novel metallic elements. According to this prevailing narrative, Humphry Davy’s successful isolation of sodium and potassium provided incontrovertible empirical proof that silenced theoretical dissenters. However, recent archival evidence suggests that this technological triumph was actually secondary to a broader conceptual shift. Davy’s contemporaries were not merely swayed by laboratory demonstrations; rather, their enthusiasm was catalyzed by Jöns Jacob Berzelius’s formulation of a dualistic model of chemical affinity that integrated electricity into the foundational ontology of matter. While Davy’s work offered striking empirical phenomena, Berzelius supplied the missing systematic rationale that reconciled dualism with existing Newtonian mechanical principles. By framing chemical bonding through electrostatic attraction, Berzelius allowed chemists to subsume disparate chemical phenomena under a unified physical law. Thus, the triumph of early electrochemistry resulted less from spectacular laboratory achievements than from a sophisticated theoretical synthesis that satisfied the nineteenth-century scientific community's demand for overarching explanatory frameworks.

Which of the following best states the primary purpose of the passage?

For decades, the popular synthesis regarding mycorrhizal networks—underground fungal threads connecting the roots of trees—framed these systems as altruistic highways through which resource-rich mature trees passively nurse shaded saplings. Early experiments demonstrating carbon transfer between trees supported this cooperative model, captivating both ecologists and the lay public. However, recent critical re-examinations suggest that this narrative oversimplifies soil ecology by failing to account for fungal self-interest. Mycorrhizal fungi are obligate symbionts, not disinterested conduits; they actively regulate nutrient allocation to maximize their own fitness rather than to foster arboreal solidarity. Furthermore, methodologically rigorous field studies indicate that the net carbon transferred via these networks is often insufficient to significantly alter sapling survival rates, while alternative mechanisms, such as root graft transfers or independent nutrient uptake, account for much of the observed growth benefits. Consequently, contemporary ecologists increasingly view mycorrhizal interaction not as a communal welfare state, but as a dynamic arena of reciprocal exploitation where both fungi and trees operate under competitive evolutionary pressures.

Which of the following best states the primary purpose of the passage?

While nineteenth-century historiography often depicted the emergence of early modern European banking institutions as a seamless, linear transmission of Italian commercial techniques to Northern European financial centers, recent micro-historical investigations present a far more nuanced picture of institutional adaptation. In particular, the adoption of double-entry bookkeeping in seventeenth-century Amsterdam was not merely a passive, wholesale absorption of Tuscan accounting manuals. Rather, Dutch merchant-bankers radically adapted these methods to accommodate the distinct risk-sharing frameworks required by transatlantic venture capital. Whereas Italian merchant oligarchies of the Renaissance relied predominantly on tightly knit, family-based partnerships bound by shared patrimony, Dutch enterprises increasingly operated through multi-investor syndicates comprising arm's-length, non-kin financial actors. Consequently, the explicit codification of legal liability and asset partitioning became paramount in Dutch ledgers—structural elements that had remained largely implicit in Florentine practice. This institutional divergence suggests that the evolution of modern accounting standards was driven less by a unilineal diffusion of mathematical techniques than by the localized imperative to mitigate agency costs and information asymmetry among unacquainted investors. Furthermore, because Dutch municipal courts refused to enforce informal credit agreements that lacked standardized ledger documentation, the formalization of bookkeeping served as a crucial legal prerequisite for capital accumulation rather than a mere administrative convenience.

The passage implies which of the following regarding accounting practices in Renaissance Florence?

Historically, historians attributed the rise of eighteenth-century European mercantilist policies primarily to state competition for bullion to finance expanding standing armies. However, recent reassessments by economic historians suggest this narrative oversimplifies a far more complex dynamic. While fiscal-military pressures were undeniably imperative, early modern states were equally driven by internal political negotiations between monarchies and rising merchant oligarchies. These merchant elites did not merely acquiesce to royal extraction; rather, they actively leveraged crown fiscal deficits to secure monopoly charters, state-sanctioned domestic protectionism, and favorable trade regulations. Consequently, mercantilism was not a monolithic top-down doctrine imposed by authoritarian monarchs seeking geopolitical dominance, but rather a negotiated economic compromise—a pragmatic alignment of interest between state apparatuses seeking immediate liquidity and private capital seeking institutionalized market advantage. Thus, understanding mercantilism requires analyzing how domestic institutional bargaining reshaped trade policy as much as examining international military rivalry.

Which of the following best expresses the primary purpose of the passage?

Historically, historians attributed the rapid decline of the 14th-century agrarian economy in Western Europe solely to the onset of the Black Death. However, recent paleoclimatological data suggests that a protracted cooling period, known as the Little Ice Age, had already severely destabilized agricultural yields decades before the epidemic arrived. By analyzing tree-ring growth and ice-core samples, researchers demonstrated that consecutive years of torrential rainfall and sub-zero spring temperatures caused widespread crop failures starting in the 1310s. While the plague undoubtedly inflicted catastrophic demographic losses, it acted upon an economic structure that was already severely compromised by environmental pressures. Thus, rather than viewing the pandemic as an isolated catalyst, contemporary scholars increasingly regard it as the final blow to a system already vulnerable to climate-driven disruption.

Which of the following best expresses the primary purpose of the passage?

Fill in each blank with the correct present-tense conjugated form of the indicated verb ('to suspect' for the first blank and 'to indicate' for the second blank) so that the sentence strictly adheres to standard English subject-verb agreement rules.

Historians of the Industrial Revolution long held that proto-industrialization—the expansion of rural cottage handcraft production for external markets—served as the indispensable transitional phase toward full-scale factory industrialization in eighteenth-century Europe. Proponents of this paradigm argued that cottage production organized by merchant-capitalists systematically undermined agrarian feudal structures, fostered capital accumulation among rural middlemen, and accustomed agrarian populations to market-oriented labor discipline. However, recent micro-historical analyses of regional economies in Flanders and the West Riding of Yorkshire reveal a far more contingent dynamic. In several regions where rural weaving and spinning flourished, local merchant networks failed to reinvest capital into mechanized centralized factories, opting instead to diversify into land speculation and traditional commerce when faced with rising mechanization costs elsewhere. Furthermore, in areas where factory systems did eventually emerge, the labor force was disproportionately drawn not from seasoned rural handloom weavers—who fiercely resisted the rigid temporal constraints of factory shifts—but from displaced agricultural laborers and migrant workers with no prior industrial experience. Consequently, while proto-industrial activity undoubtedly altered rural social structures, it cannot be characterized as an automatic precursor or requisite structural blueprint for modern industrial urbanization.

Based on the passage, which of the following can be inferred regarding seasoned rural handloom weavers during the transition to factory industrialization?

Read the following excerpt from a draft GRE Analytical Writing body paragraph on educational policy:

"Proponents of standardized testing contend that uniform assessments provide an objective measure of student achievement across diverse school districts. However, standardized tests fail to capture critical thinking and creativity. Therefore, schools should eliminate standardized tests entirely."

Which of the following revisions best improves the structural integration of the counterargument and rebuttal within this paragraph?

Consider the following statement from a GRE Issue prompt:

"To significantly improve the quality of primary education, national education boards should mandate that all elementary school teachers hold an advanced degree in a specific academic discipline rather than in general education pedagogy."

Which of the following are unstated assumptions on which the recommendation relies? Select all that apply.