All practice questions

During the early Renaissance, European artists favored egg tempera for its brilliant, quick-drying colors. However, this medium was highly unforgiving because it did not allow for blending. In the fifteenth century, Northern European painters popularized oil ______ pigment could be applied in thin, translucent layers to create the illusion of light and depth.

Which choice completes the passage so that it conforms to the conventions of Standard English?

While researching historical shell-based currencies, a student took the following notes:

* Cowrie shells were used as a natural, durable currency across Africa and Asia.
* Cowrie shells are lightweight and difficult to counterfeit.
* Wampum consists of carved, tubular beads made from clam shells.
* Indigenous nations of North America used wampum for ceremonial gifts and currency.
* Making wampum beads required skilled labor to shape and string them together.

The student wants to contrast the geographic regions where cowrie shells and wampum were used and the physical form of each currency. Which choice most effectively uses relevant information from the notes to accomplish this goal?

A student takes the following notes while researching the subterranean bacterium *Desulforudis audaxviator*:
* *Desulforudis audaxviator* is a rod-shaped bacterium found $2.8$ kilometers below Earth's surface in a South African gold mine.
* It lives in absolute darkness and is completely cut off from the surface biosphere.
* Instead of using sunlight or consuming organic matter, it obtains energy from the radiolysis of water driven by the radioactive decay of surrounding minerals.
* It utilizes this energy to build its own organic compounds from inorganic carbon and nitrogen dissolved in its aquatic environment.
* It is the sole resident of its deep-subsurface habitat, representing a self-contained, single-species ecosystem.

The student wants to present a generalization about how *Desulforudis audaxviator* maintains ecological independence. Which choice most effectively uses information from the notes to accomplish this goal?

Text 1
Evolutionary biologist Valerie Hayes argues that the primary function of zebra stripes is thermoregulation. By comparing temperatures of zebras and solid-colored mammals in the same habitat, Hayes observed that the black-and-white pattern creates micro-convection currents across the skin, lowering body temperature by up to 2°C. She concludes that stripes are an adaptation to extreme heat.

Text 2
Ecologist Marcus Vance, however, contends that zebra stripes evolved to deter biting flies, such as tsetse flies, which carry lethal diseases. Vance's team found that flies rarely land on striped surfaces because the pattern disrupts their optical flow during landing. Vance notes that zebra skin temperatures do not vary significantly from those of nearby solid-brown antelopes, suggesting that any thermoregulatory effect is negligible.

Based on the passages, how do the claims and evidence presented in Text 1 correspond to the counterarguments and alternative explanations in Text 2? Match each item from Text 1 with its corresponding counterpart from Text 2.

In forest ecology, it is well established that trees interact via underground mycorrhizal networks, sharing carbon, water, and nutrients. While early research focused heavily on how these networks facilitate cooperative resource sharing, especially between parent trees and their offspring, recent studies suggest a more competitive dynamic. For instance, ecologist Dr. Elena Vance demonstrated that mature Douglas firs frequently restrict nutrient transport to neighboring seedlings of other species during periods of drought. This finding has led researchers to re-examine the assumption that mycorrhizal networks function primarily as cooperative systems. Instead, these networks may serve as conduits for resource hoarding and species competition, shaping forest composition in ways that are far more complex than previously believed.

Which choice best describes the function of the underlined sentence in the text as a whole?

Biologists studying the evolutionary history of flight have identified numerous instances of convergent evolution, wherein unrelated organisms independently develop similar physical traits to adapt to aerial environments. __________ both bats and birds evolved wings capable of powered flight, yet their skeletal structures reveal that these appendages adapted from entirely different ancestral limbs.

Which choice completes the text with the most logical transition?

In the mid-nineteenth century, British landscape painters began incorporating the expanding railway network into their depictions of the countryside. While some art historians argue that these artists celebrated railways as symbols of technological progress, art historian Marcus Thorne contends that painters like Thomas Creswick used these elements to highlight the disruptive encroachment of industrialization on rural life. Which choice, if true, would most directly support Thorne’s contention?

While conducting research on Maya archaeology, a student took the following notes:
- In 2018, archaeologist Dr. Takeshi Inomata discovered Aguada Fénix, a Maya site in Tabasco, Mexico.
- Aguada Fénix dates from 1000 BCE to 800 BCE, making it the oldest monumental structure in the Maya region.
- The main platform of the site is also the largest Maya structure, measuring 1,400 meters in length.
- The platform was constructed of clay and earth, rather than the stone typical of later Maya architecture.

The student wants to complete a sentence that emphasizes the age of the Aguada Fénix platform, its massive length, and its specific building materials. How should the blanks in the sentence be completed to achieve this goal using the specific details from the notes?

In 2020, researchers reported detecting phosphine gas in the atmosphere of Venus, a finding that generated intense interest because phosphine is a potential biomarker on terrestrial planets. The announcement prompted a flurry of planetary modeling and hypotheses about aerial microbes surviving in the planet's sulfuric acid clouds. __________, subsequent independent analyses of the data, as well as new observations with more sensitive telescope arrays, failed to detect any statistically significant trace of the gas, suggesting the original signal may have been a processing error.

Which choice completes the text with the most logical transition?

In behavioral economics, the "endowment effect" describes the tendency of individuals to value an item they own more highly than an identical item they do not own. In a series of experiments, researcher Clara Vance examined whether this bias persists in transactions involving digital goods. Vance found that participants who were given a digital music album valued it significantly higher than those who were merely given the opportunity to purchase it. However, when participants were informed that the digital platform's licensing agreement allowed the provider to revoke access to the album at any time, the difference in valuation between the two groups disappeared. Which choice most logically completes the text?

Text 1
Optimal foraging theory posits that organisms make decisions that maximize their net energy intake per unit of time. In studies of bumblebees (*Bombus terrestris*), researchers have observed that foragers consistently select flowers with the highest sugar concentrations, even when those flowers are surrounded by less rewarding options. According to these researchers, such precise selectivity demonstrates that bees perform complex cognitive evaluations of caloric returns, calculating the energetic values of different resources to optimize their foraging paths.

Text 2
While laboratory experiments show that bumblebees prefer high-sugar rewards, these highly controlled settings fail to capture the ecological pressures of natural habitats. In the wild, bees face predation risks and complex search costs that make calculating precise caloric returns mathematically counterproductive. Instead of executing optimal foraging calculations, bees utilize simple, rapid heuristics—such as visiting any flower resembling a recently successful source. While these behavioral shortcuts may appear suboptimal in isolation, they are highly robust in dynamic environments.

Based on the passages, how would the author of Text 2 most likely characterize the claim in Text 1 that bees perform "complex cognitive evaluations of caloric returns"?

While preparing a presentation on the agricultural history of China, a student takes the following notes:
* The sweet potato (*Ipomoea batatas*) was introduced to China from the Philippines in the late sixteenth century.
* Unlike traditional Chinese staples like rice and wheat, sweet potatoes can grow in sandy or acidic soils and survive severe droughts.
* Historian Martin Heijdra notes that extreme weather caused major famines in China between 1637 and 1643.
* Historical records indicate that Chinese provinces that adopted the sweet potato early experienced significantly lower famine-related mortality rates during the 1637–1643 crisis than did provinces relying solely on traditional crops.

The student wants to support the claim that the introduction of the sweet potato mitigated the impact of agricultural crises in early modern China. Which choice most effectively uses information from the given notes to accomplish this goal?

While researching ancient trade routes, a student took the following notes:

* The Silk Road was a vast network of trade routes that connected East Asia with the Mediterranean region and Europe.
* It was active from the second century BCE to the mid-fifteenth century CE, facilitating the exchange of luxury goods, technologies, and ideas.
* The Amber Road was an ancient European trade route that linked the Baltic coast with the Mediterranean region.
* It was utilized primarily from the Bronze Age through the Roman Empire to transport fossilized tree resin to southern Europe.

The student wants to contrast the geographic regions connected by the two trade routes. Which choice most effectively uses information from the given notes to accomplish this goal?

While planning a presentation, a student takes the following notes:
* *Kiwa tyleri* (commonly called the "Hoff crab") is a species of squat lobster discovered in 2010.
* It lives near hydrothermal vents on the Southern Ocean floor, where water temperatures vary from $0^\circ\text{C}$ to over $350^\circ\text{C}$.
* The crab's chest is covered in dense, hair-like structures called setae.
* Chemosynthetic, filamentous bacteria grow in large colonies on these setae.
* *Kiwa tyleri* scrapes the bacteria off its chest and consumes them as its primary source of food.

The student wants to summarize the relationship between *Kiwa tyleri* and the bacteria on its body. Which choice most effectively uses information from the given notes to accomplish this goal?

While preparing a presentation on ecological science, a student took the following notes:
* Phenology is the study of periodic biological phenomena, such as plant flowering and bird migration.
* These biological events are closely synchronized with seasonal climate cycles.
* The term "phenology" was coined by Belgian botanist Charles Morren in 1849.
* Phenological observations help researchers monitor how ecosystems respond to climate change.

The student wants to introduce phenology to an audience unfamiliar with the topic. Which choice most effectively uses information from the given notes to accomplish this goal?

Text 1
Archaeologist Klaus Schmidt argued that Göbekli Tepe, a 11,000-year-old site in Turkey, served exclusively as a temple, built by mobile hunter-gatherers who congregated periodically for rituals. Schmidt claimed the lack of domestic water sources and residential structures indicates that the monumental stone circles were not inhabited, meaning religion predated agriculture and settled life.

Text 2
Archaeologist Ted Banning challenges the "temple-only" view of Göbekli Tepe. Banning points out that domestic activities leave subtle signatures, such as bone grease and hearths, which are present at the site. He suggests that the stone buildings could have supported roofs and served as large communal houses. Thus, the distinction between ritual and daily domestic life in early Neolithic societies is likely overstated.

Based on the passages, how would Banning (Text 2) most likely respond to Schmidt’s claim in Text 1 regarding the lack of residential structures at Göbekli Tepe?

Complete the passage with the form of the verb 'arrive' that conforms to the conventions of Standard English.

In paleolimnology, the ratio of titanium to calcium ($Ti/Ca$) in sediment cores is often used as a proxy for terrestrial runoff, as titanium is transported from soil erosion while calcium typically precipitates from lake water during dry periods. However, geochemist Maya Lin noted that in lakes surrounded by limestone bedrock, which is rich in calcium carbonate, intense rainfall dissolves the surrounding limestone. This dissolved calcium then enters the lake and precipitates rapidly. Consequently, in lakes with limestone catchment basins, periods of high rainfall and subsequent runoff will likely

Which choice most logically completes the text?

A student compiled the following notes while researching medieval manuscripts:

* The *St. Augustine Gospels* is an illuminated manuscript held at Corpus Christi College, Cambridge.
* It was written in Italy in the late 6th century and brought to England in 597 CE.
* The manuscript's pages are made of vellum (calfskin).
* In 2023, conservator Dr. Sarah Neate used non-invasive multispectral imaging to analyze the manuscript's faded pigments.
* The analysis revealed that the scribe used imported lapis lazuli pigment rather than local woad-based dyes.

The student wants to emphasize the manuscript's geographical origin and the specific technology used to analyze it in 2023. Which choice most effectively uses information from the given notes to accomplish this goal?

In the late nineteenth century, botanist Elizabeth Gertrude Britton dedicated her career to studying mosses and advocating for wild plant conservation. She cofounded the New York Botanical Garden in 1891, an institution that remains a major center for plant research today. Throughout her lifetime, Britton published hundreds of scientific papers and ________ key conservation organizations that protected rare flora across North America.

Which choice completes the text so that it conforms to the conventions of Standard English?