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Arthur Pendelton’s designs for the mid-century civic offices in Leeds were routinely condemned by the municipal council as monumentally stubborn, representing a willful refusal to adapt to the light, airy glass-and-steel aesthetic favored by his peers. Critics pointed to his massive, windowless concrete facades as evidence of a misanthropic desire to shut out the public. However, Pendelton's diaries from the construction period suggest a completely different motivation. He did not hate the public, nor did he possess a dogmatic attachment to Brutalism; rather, his designs were dictated by a severe, lifelong hypersensitivity to visual noise and natural glare. Pendelton wrote of his desperate need to create spaces that functioned as sensory dampers, shielding occupants from what he described as the 'exhausting chaos of the unregulated sky.' His heavy, protective walls were not designed to exclude the citizenry, but were a direct manifestation of his own physiological craving for visual stillness and absolute shadows.

According to the passage, Pendelton’s windowless designs were a direct reflection of which of his personal traits?

Passage:

In 1766, when the French naturalist Philibert Commerson boarded the Bougainville expedition to catalog global flora, he did so with his assistant, Jean Baret. Officially, Baret was hired to carry heavy equipment and press specimens, tasks requiring stamina that Commerson—plagued by poor health—frequently lacked. In private notebooks, Commerson praised Baret's extraordinary eye for botany, noting that Baret had discovered several of the expedition’s most prized specimens, including a vibrant flowering vine that Commerson named Bougainvillea. However, the official expedition logs, penned by the captain and published upon their return to France, barely mentioned Baret's contributions, cataloging the botanical discoveries as Commerson's sole achievements. Meanwhile, Commerson’s letters to his patrons in Paris routinely emphasized his own pioneering genius while pleading for more funding to cover Baret's modest assistant wage, which was frequently delayed. Back in Paris, Baret was eventually granted a pension by the Ministry of Marine years later, though only after Commerson’s death, citing Baret's service to the Crown and assistance to Commerson during the voyage.

Based on the passage, how is the relationship between Commerson’s public representation of Baret’s role and Baret’s actual contributions to the expedition best characterized?

Passage:

Ancient civilizations developed sophisticated systems to manage water resources, distinct in engineering and environmental adaptation. The Persian qanat, developed in the first millennium BCE, was an underground tunnel system designed to tap into mountain aquifers. Because qanats were constructed entirely beneath the surface, they successfully minimized water loss through evaporation—a critical advantage in arid desert climates. Furthermore, they relied solely on gravity to draw water downslope, requiring no mechanical power. In contrast, the Roman aqueduct system, constructed centuries later, relied on a combination of surface channels, massive elevated stone arches, and underground conduits to transport water from distant freshwater springs and rivers directly to urban centers. While Roman aqueducts also functioned via gravitational flow, their exposure to the open air made them significantly more vulnerable to evaporation and contamination than the subterranean qanats. However, the open-channel design of the aqueducts permitted the transport of far greater volumes of water, supporting the massive populations of Roman cities.

According to the passage, which of the following is an explicit difference between the Persian qanat and the Roman aqueduct?

During their summer excavation of the remote canyon walls, the research team discovered several ancient petroglyphs, which are drawings or designs carved directly into the stone surfaces. These prehistoric rock carvings depicted local wildlife, hunters with bows, and geometric symbols. By analyzing these durable stone engravings, the archaeologists hoped to understand the spiritual practices of the region’s earliest human inhabitants, who left behind no written records.

As it is used in the passage, what is the most accurate meaning of the underlined word petroglyphs?

The following passage is adapted from a biographical essay on a twentieth-century architect.

"The architect’s journal was less a record of blueprints than a cartography of his changing obsessions. In his early years, he spoke of stone and steel as if they were willing co-conspirators in his quest to pierce the skyline. His drawings from this period exhibit a fierce ambition; columns are rendered as clenched fists holding up the weight of tradition. Yet, by the middle of his career, a quieter philosophy began to color his prose. The rigid boundaries of his drafting table could no longer contain his ideas, which had begun to run like water into the cracks of the city’s social history. He ceased trying to conquer the sky and instead sought to weave his structures into the existing urban fabric. In these later pages, he describes the neighborhood not as a grid of concrete, but as a living tapestry of voices, where each doorway serves as a punctuation mark in a long, unwritten sentence. His final entry warns his apprentices against the danger of building monuments that are merely glass cages—structures that capture the light but suffocate the soul of the street."

Based on the passage, match each figurative expression (on the left) to its correct contextual meaning (on the right).

### Passage

The High-Altitude Garden: The Engineering of Andean Terracing

In the rugged expanse of the South American Andes, vertical landscapes present formidable barriers to human survival. Steep gradients, thin soils, and unpredictable frost cycles make traditional farming nearly impossible. Yet, ancient Andean societies not only survived in this vertical wilderness but thrived. Beginning with pre-Inca cultures like the Wari and culminating in the administrative genius of the Inca Empire, mountain dwellers adapted to their environment using a system of agricultural terraces, or *andenes*. By modifying mountainous terrain into structured, irrigated steps, Andean agricultural terracing fundamentally transformed a hostile environment into a highly productive agricultural landscape that sustained expansive pre-Columbian empires. This technological feat allowed civilizations to scale the slopes of some of the world's most unforgiving peaks and turn them into reliable breadbaskets.

The success of these systems relied heavily on the precise engineering of individual terrace structures, which served to stabilize the soil and control temperature. Far from being simple piles of dirt held back by rocks, *andenes* were complex, multi-layered geological filters. Laborers cleared the slope, dug deep into the mountain, and built stone retaining walls that leaned slightly inward to resist the outward push of wet soil. Behind these stone walls, builders layered coarse gravel and sand at the base, topped it with a layer of fine sand, and capped it with rich, organic topsoil hauled up from the valley floors. This layered composition served a dual purpose. During the day, the stone walls and rocky fill absorbed solar radiation, heating up under the intense high-altitude sun. At night, as temperatures plummeted below freezing, this stored heat slowly radiated back into the soil, protecting delicate crops like maize and potatoes from devastating frosts. Additionally, the porous layers of gravel and sand allowed excess water to drain quickly, preventing landslides and soil erosion during heavy seasonal downpours. Thus, pre-Columbian terrace construction relied on advanced multi-layered engineering to prevent soil erosion and optimize heat retention during cold mountain nights.

Beyond structural stability, the survival of mountain communities depended on the systematic manipulation and distribution of water across varying elevations. In the arid highlands, rain fell sporadically, while glacial runoff was concentrated in seasonal torrents. To harness this vital resource, Andean builders constructed intricate hydrological networks that linked high-altitude glacial lakes to individual terrace complexes. Aqueducts, stone-lined channels, and underground cisterns diverted water from mountain streams, guiding it down hundreds of meters of vertical drop with minimal erosion. At the terrace level, water flowed from upper levels to lower levels through carefully carved stone drops, ensuring that every plot received a controlled amount of moisture. This level of control allowed farmers to cultivate crops at different microclimates simultaneously, insulating the community against localized crop failures. Therefore, managing the flow of water across varied elevations required sophisticated canals and aqueducts that guaranteed crop hydration during periods of drought.

Such massive infrastructure projects could not be built by independent family units; they required unprecedented levels of social organization and political control. The construction of miles of stone walls and channels demanded coordinated labor from thousands of citizens. Under both the Wari and the Inca, this was accomplished through a system of state-mandated collective labor, known under the Inca as *mita*. In exchange for their labor in constructing and maintaining state infrastructure, citizens received food, beer, and protection from the ruling elite. The agricultural calendar, closely monitored by state priests and administrators through astronomical observations, coordinated planting, harvesting, and maintenance schedules across different ecological zones. This collective effort not only constructed physical structures but also forged a unified political identity among diverse ethnic groups. Consequently, the immense labor and coordination needed to construct and maintain terraced landscapes catalyzed centralized political authority and state administration.

Today, many of these ancient stone structures lie abandoned, victims of the Spanish conquest and subsequent shift toward European farming practices. However, modern archaeologists and ecologists are increasingly recognizing the sustainable genius of *andenes*. In an era of climate instability and melting glaciers, these ancient terraced fields offer invaluable lessons in ecological resilience and water conservation.

Question:
Match each paragraph from the passage with the statement that represents its explicitly stated main idea.

Read the passage below. Based on the context clues, fill in the blank with a word that carries a positive connotation of value, contrasting with the word 'worthless'.

The wind off the bay always sharpened in late October, bringing with it the scent of salt and dried sea grass. For Leo, this wind meant only one thing: the annual Kite Festival at the harbor. For weeks, the sky would be filled with brilliant diamonds, dragons, and boxes, all dancing on the invisible currents of the autumn air.

This year, Leo was determined to fly a kite of his own making. He had spent hours watching tutorials online, memorizing the steps to assemble a sleek, modern kite using lightweight ripstop nylon and carbon fiber rods. He had a roll of duct tape and a pair of scissors ready on the kitchen table. He wanted to finish it in an afternoon.

His grandfather, Abuelo Tomas, looked at the plastic and synthetic string with a quiet, patient smile. "That will catch the wind, yes," Tomas said, his voice carrying the soft cadence of the coastal hills. "But a kite made in an hour is forgotten in an hour. Come. Let us build one that remembers."

Tomas led Leo to the small shed behind the house. It smelled of shaved cedar and linseed oil. From a rack on the wall, Tomas took down a dry, yellowed stalk of bamboo. "This is the bones," he said. He handed Leo a small pocketknife. "We must shave the bamboo until it is thin enough to bend, but strong enough to resist the gale."

Leo frowned. "Can’t we just use the carbon rods, Abuelo? They’re already straight."

"The carbon does not know how to bend with the wind; it only knows how to hold its shape until it snaps," Tomas replied gently. "Shaving the wood takes time, but it teaches you the wood's strength."

For three days, Leo’s hands grew sore as he shaved the bamboo under his grandfather's watchful eye. Every time Leo tried to rush, splitting the wood, Tomas would hand him a new piece without a word of anger. Next came the paper. Instead of plastic, Tomas produced sheets of heavy mulberry paper. They mixed a pot of paste using flour and water, cooking it slowly over the stove until it thickened.

By the morning of the festival, Leo’s friends were already at the harbor, their bright, store-bought plastic kites soaring immediately into the sky. Leo looked down at his kite. It was simple, white paper stretched over a bamboo frame, decorated only with a single blue wave he had painted. It felt heavy compared to the plastic ones.

When they reached the grassy cliffs, the wind was fierce. Leo’s friend, Marcus, laughed. "You’re going to fly a paper kite in this wind? It’ll soak up the mist and rip!" Marcus’s plastic kite, a neon green delta, zipped upward, tugging hard at its synthetic line.

Leo felt a knot of doubt in his stomach. But Tomas nodded. "Give it line, Leo. Trust the bamboo."

Leo launched the kite. For a moment, it dipped, and his heart sank. But then, as the wind caught the curved paper canopy, the shaved bamboo frame flexed, absorbing the gust. The kite rose, steady and graceful, climbing higher and higher until it was a small white speck against the gray clouds.

Around them, the wind grew even wilder. A sudden, sharp gust swept over the cliffs. With a loud snap, Marcus’s plastic kite tore from its frame and plummeted into the sea. Several other modern kites spun out of control, their rigid frames snapping under the sudden pressure.

But Leo’s kite held. It rode the wind like a gull, bending when the gust pushed, rising when it subsided. As Leo felt the steady pull of the cotton string in his hands, he understood why they had spent three days shaving the bamboo. The beauty of the kite was not just in how it flew, but in the time and care that had made it strong enough to survive.

Statement: The central theme of the passage is that patience and meticulous preparation lead to enduring strength and success, whereas rushing for quick results often leads to failure.

Based on the passage, is this statement true or false?

Although the mayor spoke with an easy smile and waved warmly to the crowd, her choice of words was calculated. Every phrase had been vetted by her team to ensure it would appease the voters. She did not want to leave anything to chance during this final week of the campaign.

As it is used in the passage, the word "calculated" most nearly means which of the following?

The following passage is adapted from an article exploring the history of deep-sea oceanography.

[Paragraph 1]
For decades, marine biologists operated under the assumption that all life on Earth was ultimately dependent on sunlight. Photosynthesis was seen as the foundational process of the global food web, capturing solar energy to sustain primary producers, which in turn nourished herbivorous and carnivorous species alike. The sunlit upper layers of the ocean, known as the photic zone, were therefore believed to be the primary engine of marine biological productivity. The abyssal plains, shrouded in perpetual darkness, were assumed to be biological deserts, supported only by the sparse, decaying organic matter—often called 'marine snow'—that slowly drifted down from the surface.

[Paragraph 2] (lines 12–25)
This long-standing paradigm was shattered in 1977 during an expedition by the research submersible Alvin to the Galapagos Rift, a volcanic ridge on the ocean floor. Scientists discovered hydrothermal vents—fissures where superheated, mineral-rich water spews from the Earth's crust into the freezing ocean depths. To the researchers' astonishment, these vents were surrounded by dense, thriving communities of bizarre organisms, including giant tube worms, blind crabs, and massive clusters of clams. Rather than relying on sunlight, these organisms thrived on chemical energy. Specialized bacteria oxidized hydrogen sulfide dissolved in the vent fluids, converting it into organic matter through a process known as chemosynthesis. This discovery established that complex, highly productive ecosystems could flourish in the complete absence of solar radiation, fundamentally redefining the boundaries of life on Earth.

Which of the following statements best describes the main idea of the second paragraph (lines 12–25)?

Passage:

During the Baroque era, keyboard players chose between the clavichord and the harpsichord based on the acoustic demands of their performance spaces. The clavichord, which produced sound by striking brass tangents against the strings, allowed the player to control the volume of individual notes through varying finger pressure; however, its delicate tone was barely audible outside small, quiet rooms. Conversely, the harpsichord utilized a plucking mechanism that produced a bright, loud sound suitable for larger concert halls. Yet, because the harpsichord's plucking action was binary—meaning the string was either plucked or not—players could not alter the dynamics or volume of notes through their touch alone, unlike their ability to do so on the intimate clavichord.

According to the passage, which of the following describes a capability that a performer has when playing the clavichord but lacks when playing the harpsichord?

For centuries, the small island nation relied almost entirely on its geographical isolation to protect its sovereignty from foreign invasion. However, as global trade routes expanded and neighboring empires built increasingly modern navies, the protective effectiveness of this natural barrier began to flag. By the late eighteenth century, the nation's leaders realized they could no longer depend solely on the surrounding ocean for defense, prompting them to establish formal, strategic alliances with powerful continental empires to secure their borders.

In the context of the passage, the word *flag* most nearly means which of the following?

When Thomas Edison patented the phonograph in 1877, he envisioned it primarily as an office tool designed to record dictation, preserve oral histories, and assist the blind. To Edison, the machine’s value lay in its utility as a reliable stenographer. He initially resisted the commercial exploitation of the device for musical entertainment, viewing such pursuits as frivolous distractions from its serious, practical capabilities. Yet, as the technology found its way into public spaces, it was quickly co-opted by entrepreneurs who installed 'nickel-in-the-slot' phonographs in phonograph parlors, allowing patrons to listen to popular music through listening tubes. The overwhelming public demand for recorded music forced a pivot in the industry; manufacturers began mass-producing musical cylinders, and the phonograph evolved from a sterile administrative aid into a transformative cultural medium. This transition was not driven by technological breakthrough or managerial foresight, but by the spontaneous alignment of public desire and entrepreneurial opportunism. The physical mechanism of the phonograph remained largely unchanged during these early years, yet its presence in American life was utterly rewritten.

Which of the following best expresses the central theme of the passage?

For sixteenth-century European cartographers, the drawing of a map was as much an exercise in imaginative geography as it was in empirical observation. While coastal outlines and well-traveled trade routes were recorded with increasing precision, the vast interiors of continents remained blank spaces—mysterious voids that challenged the cartographer's horror vacui. To fill these silent stretches of parchment, mapmakers did not merely leave empty spaces; instead, they populated the unknown with illustrations of mythical beasts, elaborate compass roses, and towering mountain ranges sketched from rumor. These decorative elements served a dual purpose: they masked the cartographer's ignorance while offering a narrative of adventure to wealthy patrons.

In these maps, the ocean was not merely a physical barrier but a canvas of anxieties, painted with thrashing sea monsters that symbolized the limits of human sovereignty. The land, too, was described in metaphorical terms. Cartographers spoke of 'breathing life' into a map, by which they meant the addition of artistic details that transformed a cold, mathematical grid into a living story. Thus, the map became a theater of the world, where the known and the unknown performed a delicate dance of coexistence. Rather than representing objective reality, these documents captured the mental landscape of an era standing on the threshold of global exploration.

Based on the second paragraph, which of the following best describes the meaning of the figurative phrase 'canvas of anxieties' as it is used to describe the ocean?

Passage

In the summer of $1967$, Jocelyn Bell Burnell, a graduate student at Cambridge, spent her afternoons analyzing miles of paper charts produced by a newly constructed radio telescope. The telescope, which she had helped build, was designed to study quasars. However, in August, she noticed a strange "scruff" on the chart recordings—a signal that occupied less than a hundredth of an inch. As the autumn progressed, she realized this anomalous signal reappeared at the same location in the sky each day, pulsating with incredible regularity every $1.33$ seconds. When she first brought the chart to her advisor, Antony Hewish, he initially dismissed it as man-made interference, arguing that the telescope was likely picking up a passing car or faulty wiring. Undeterred, Bell Burnell continued her observations, soon locating a second, entirely different pulsating source in a separate part of the sky. This second signal, found in December, effectively ruled out local interference and convinced Hewish that they were looking at a genuine astronomical phenomenon. By February of the following year, their findings were published, igniting a global search for what would soon be named pulsars.

Based on the passage, in what chronological order did these events occur, from earliest to latest?

During his first semester at the prestigious university, Julian felt acutely aware of his modest, working-class background. Surrounded by peers who conversed effortlessly about classical literature and European travels, he felt an intense pressure to fit in. To mask his deep-seated insecurity, Julian affected a posture of intellectual detachment, pretending that the academic debates in the seminar rooms were beneath his interest. He spoke rarely, and when he did, he adopted a dry, cynical tone. However, this aloof facade did not fool his professor, who recognized the student’s silence as a shield rather than a sign of genuine indifference.

As it is used in the passage, the word *affected* most nearly means which of the following?

Read the passage below:

For decades after the discovery of the double helix structure of DNA, molecular biology focused almost exclusively on protein-coding genes. The vast stretches of the genome that did not code for proteins were frequently dismissed as evolutionary remnants, popularized in the 1970s as 'junk DNA.' This gene-centric view suggested that these non-coding regions had no active function, representing merely cellular clutter accumulated over millennia of reproduction.

However, this dismissal proved premature. As genomic sequencing technologies advanced in the late twentieth and early twenty-first centuries, researchers began uncovering complex regulatory systems embedded within these supposedly inert sequences. Projects like ENCODE (Encyclopedia of DNA Elements) revealed that a significant portion of non-coding DNA is actively transcribed into various forms of non-coding RNA, which play critical roles in gene expression, cellular differentiation, and disease development. Rather than being useless debris, these regions act as a sophisticated control panel, determining when, where, and how protein-coding genes are activated.

This shift in understanding has transformed molecular biology. The genome is no longer viewed as a collection of isolated coding sequences floating in a sea of genetic trash; instead, it is recognized as an integrated, dynamic system where non-coding elements are essential to organismal complexity. Consequently, studying these regulatory elements has become central to genetic research, offering new pathways for targeted medical therapies.

Which of the following statements best summarizes the central thesis of the passage?

Though most people view the printing press as the singular catalyst for the European Renaissance, it was actually the introduction of rag paper that made this intellectual leap possible. Before the fourteenth century, European documents were written on parchment made from animal skins—a process that was both labor-intensive and prohibitively expensive. A single Bible required the skins of hundreds of sheep, making books a luxury reserved for the ultra-wealthy. Rag paper, made from recycled linen and cotton rags, offered a far cheaper alternative. Consequently, the cost of written material plummeted, and literacy rates began to climb even before Gutenberg cast his first metal type. Rag paper provided the affordable medium that the printing press would later exploit to distribute knowledge on an unprecedented scale.

Based on the passage, the sentence 'Consequently, the cost of written material plummeted, and literacy rates began to climb even before Gutenberg cast his first metal type' primarily serves to do which of the following?

Read the passage below. Complete the final sentence of the passage by filling in the blank with the appropriate metaphorical noun that matches the parallel structure of the author's comparison.

For decades, historians of science championed the narrative that the scientific revolution was a sudden, clean break from medieval scholasticism. They pointed to Galileo's experiments and Newton's calculus as sudden beacons of modern empirical thought that instantly vanquished the dogmatic, Aristotle-driven philosophies of the Middle Ages. However, this neat division ignores the complex web of continuity that connected early modern innovators to their scholastic predecessors. Galileo, for all his pioneering work in kinematics, frequently employed scholastic terms and forms of disputation in his notebooks. His methodology was less a spontaneous combustion of modern genius and more a slow refinement of late-medieval theories of impetus. By framing the revolution as an absolute rupture, earlier scholars did not merely simplify history; they obscured the very intellectual scaffolding that made modern science possible.

In the context of the passage, the sentence 'Galileo, for all his pioneering work in kinematics, frequently employed scholastic terms and forms of disputation in his notebooks' primarily serves to do which of the following?