Latest Exam Prep

QUESTION 12
Late Victorian and modern ideas of culture are indebted to Matthew Arnold, who, largely through his Culture and Anarchy (1869), placed the word at the center of debates about the goals of intellectual life and humanistic society. Arnold defined culture as “the pursuit of perfection by getting to know the best which has been thought and said.” Through this knowledge, Arnold hoped, we can turn “a fresh and free thought upon our stock notions and habits.” Although Arnold helped to define the purposes of the liberal arts curriculum in the century following the publication of Culture, three concrete forms of dissent from his views have had considerable impact of their own. The first protests Arnold’s fearful designation of
“anarchy” as culture’s enemy, viewing this dichotomy simply as another version of the struggle between a privileged power structure and radical challenges to its authority. But while Arnold certainly tried to define the arch – the legitimizing order of value – against the anarch of existentialist democracy, he himself was plagued in his soul by the blind arrogances of the reactionary powers in his world. The writer who regarded the contemporary condition with such apprehension in Culture is the poet who wrote “Dover Beach,” not an ideologue rounding up all the usual modern suspects. Another form of opposition saw Arnold’s culture as a perverse perpetuation of classical and literary learning, outlook, and privileges in a world where science had become the new arch and from which any substantively new order of thinking must develop. At the center of the “two cultures” debate were the goals of the formal educational curriculum, the principal vehicle through which Arnoldian culture operates. However, Arnold himself had viewed culture as enacting its life in a much more broadly conceived set of institutions. A third form is so-called “multiculturalism,” a movement aimed largely at gaining recognition for voices and visions that Arnoldian culture has implicitly suppressed. In educational practice, multiculturalists are interested in deflating the imperious authority that
“high culture” exercises over curriculum while bringing into play the principle that we must learn what is representative, for we have overemphasized what is exceptional. Though the multiculturalists’ conflict with Arnoldian culture has clear affinities with the radical critique, multiculturalism actually affirms Arnold by returning us more specifically to a tension inherent in the idea of culture rather than to the cultureanarchy dichotomy. The social critics, defenders of science, and multiculturalists insist that Arnold’s culture is simply a device for ordering us about. Instead, however, it is designed to register the gathering of ideological clouds on the horizon. There is no utopian motive in Arnold’s celebration of perfection.
Perfection mattered to Arnold as the only background against which we could form a just image of our actual circumstances, just as we can conceive finer sunsets and unheard melodies.
It can be inferred from the passage that the two-cultures debate

QUESTION 13
A divide between aesthetic and technical considerations has played a crucial role in mapmakiug and cartographic scholarship. Some nineteenth-century cartographers, for instance, understood themselves as technicians who did not care about visual effects, while others saw themselves as landscape painters. That dichotomy structured the discipline of the history of cartography. Until the 1980s, in what Blakemore and Harley called “the ‘Old is Beautiful’ paradigm.” scholars largely focused on maps made before 1800. marveling at their beauty and sometimes regretting the decline of the pre-technical age. Early mapmaking was considered art while modem cartography was located within the realm of engineering utility. Alpers. however, has argued that this boundary would have puzzled mapmakers in the seventeenth century, because they considered themselves to be visual engineers.
It can be inferred from the passage that, beginning in the 1980s. historians of cartography

QUESTION 14
High in the Andes Mountains in Peru stands the ancient city of Machu Picchu. No one knows why this great city was built, nor is it likely that we will ever know. Nevertheless, the deserted city of Machu Picchu is important for what it reveals about the ancient Inca people of South America. The Incas once ruled a great empire that covered a large part of the South American continent. The empire was more than five hundred years old when the first Spanish explorers, looking for gold, went to that continent in the sixteenth century.
The Incas were an advanced people. They were skillful engineers who paved their roads and built sturdy bridges. They plowed the land in such a way that rains would not wash away valuable soil. They dug ditches to carry water into dry areas for farming.
Even though they did not know about the wheel, the Incas were able to move huge stone blocks- some as heavy as ten tons- up the sides of mountains to build walls. The blocks were fitted so tightly, without cement of any kind, that it would be impossible to slip a knife blade between them! The walls have stood firm through great storms and earthquakes that have destroyed many modern buildings.
The Incas were great artists, too. Today, Incan dishes and other kinds of pottery are prized for their wonderful designs. Since both gold and silver were in great supply, the Incas created splendid objects from these precious metals.
While it is true that the Incas had no written language, they kept their accounts by using a system of knotted strings of various lengths and colors. The sizes of the knots and the distances between them represented numbers.
At its height, the Incan empire included as many as thirty million people. The emperor ruled them with an iron hand. He told his subjects where to live, what to plant, how long they should work even whom they could marry. Since he owned everything, the emperor gave what he wished when he wished – and in the amount he wished – to his people.
In 1533 Spanish explorers led by Francisco Pizarro murdered the emperor of the Incas. Earlier, the heir to the Incan empire had also been killed. The Incas, who had always been entirely dependent on their emperor, now had no recognized leader. The Spaniards easily conquered the empire and plundered its riches. Have the Incas disappeared from South America? Not at all. In Peru alone, once the center of that great empire, eighty percent of the twenty million people are descendants of the Inca people. Evidence of the Incan empire can be found in many other places in South America as well. You can even visit Machu Picchu. The remains of this ancient city still stand high in the mountains of Peru, an awesome tribute to this once powerful empire.
What is the main idea of this passage?

QUESTION 15
Researchers concluded thai although the success of pearl millet crops in the region varied with seasonal climatic conditions, cultivation remains_________because of pearl millet’s predisposition to perform under stressful growing conditions, including drought.

QUESTION 16
“Old woman,” grumbled the burly white man who had just heard Sojourner Truth speak, “do you think your talk about slavery does any good? I don’t care any more for your talk than I do for the bite of a flea.” The tall, imposing black woman turned her piercing eyes on him. “Perhaps not,” she answered, “but I’ll keep you scratching.” The little incident of the 1840s sums up all that Sojourner Truth was: utterly dedicated to spreading her message, afraid of no one, forceful and witty in speech. Yet forty years earlier, who could have suspected that a spindly slave girl growing up in a damp cellar in upstate New York would become one of the most remarkable women in American history? Her name then was Isabella (many slaves had no last names), and by the time she was fourteen she had seen both parents die of cold and hunger. She herself had been sold several times. By 1827, when New York freed its slaves, she had married and borne five children. The first hint of Isabella’s fighting spirit came soon afterwards, when her youngest son was illegally seized and sold. She marched to the courthouse and badgered officials until her son was returned to her. In 1843, inspired by religion, she changed her name to Sojourner (meaning “one who stays briefly”) Truth, and, with only pennies in her purse, set out to preach against slavery. From New England to Minnesota she trekked, gaining a reputation for her plain but powerful and moving words. Incredibly, despite being black and female (only white males were expected to be public speakers), she drew thousands to town halls, tents, and churches to hear her powerful, deep-voiced pleas on equality for blacks-and for women. Often she had to face threatening hoodlums. Once she stood before armed bullies and sang a hymn to them. Awed by her courage and her commanding presence, they sheepishly retreated. During the Civil War she cared for homeless ex-slaves in Washington. President Lincoln invited her to the White House to bestow praise on her. Later, she petitioned Congress to help former slaves get land in the West. Even in her old age, she forced the city of Washington to integrate its trolley cars so that black and white could ride together. Shortly before her death at eighty-six, she was asked what kept her going. “I think of the great things,” replied Sojourner.
She forced the city of Washington to …

QUESTION 17
PERTURB:

QUESTION 18
Robert Philip argues that the advent of recorded music has directed performance style into a search for greater precision and perfection, with a consequent loss of spontaneity and warmth. Various expressive devices once common in classical music have been almost outlawed, including portamento (sliding from one note to another on a stringed instrument), playing the piano with the hands not quite synchronized, and flexibility of tempo.
Philip fully documents these changes. However, other forces independent of recording were also at work. For example, the freedom of tempo so valued by Philip was. in its time, both a necessary expedient and disastrously abused. Recording alone did not cause the reaction against it. although hearing a particularly unintelligent use of it on disc may have reinforced the prejudice.
A criticism of Philip implied by the passage is that he

QUESTION 19
MASSIVE : BULK

QUESTION 20
ABRUPT:

QUESTION 21
The victory of the small Greek democracy of Athens over the mighty Persian empire in 490 B C is one of the most famous events in history. Darius, king of the Persian empire, was furious because Athens had interceded for the other Greek city-states in revolt against Persian domination. In anger the king sent an enormous army to defeat Athens.
He thought it would take drastic steps to pacify the rebellious part of the empire. Persia was ruled by one man. In Athens, however, all citizens helped to rule. Ennobled by this participation, Athenians were prepared to die for their city-state. Perhaps this was the secret of the remarkable victory at Marathon, which freed them from Persian rule. On their way to Marathon, the Persians tried to fool some Greek city- states by claiming to have come in peace. The frightened citizens of Delos refused to believe this. Not wanting to abet the conquest of Greece, they fled from their city and did not return until the Persians had left. They were wise, for the Persians next conquered the city of Etria and captured its people. Tiny Athens stood alone against Persia. The Athenian people went to their sanctuaries. There they prayed for deliverance. They asked their gods to expedite their victory. The Athenians refurbished their weapons and moved to the plain of Marathon, where their little band would meet the Persians. At the last moment, soldiers from Plataea reinforced the Athenian troops. The Athenian army attacked, and Greek citizens fought bravely. The power of the mighty Persians was offset by the love that the Athenians had for their city. Athenians defeated the Persians in archery and hand combat.
Greek soldiers seized Persian ships and burned them, and the Persians fled in terror.
Herodotus, a famous historian, reports that 6400 Persians died, compared with only 192 Athenians.
Athens had ____the other Greek city-states against the Persians.

QUESTION 22
Recent research has questioned the long-standing view of pearly mussels as exclusively suspension feeders (animals that strain suspended particles from water) that subsist on phytoplankton (mostly algae). Early studies of mussel feeding were based on analyses of gut contents, a method that has three weaknesses. First, material in mucus-bound gut contents is difficult to identify and quantify. Second, material found in the gut may pass undigested out of the mussel, not contributing to its nutrition. Finally, examination of gut contents offers limited insight into the mechanisms and behaviors by which mussels acquire food. Modem studies suggest that pearly mussels feed on more than just algae and may use other means than suspension feeding. Pedal feeding (sweeping up edible material with a muscular structure called the foot) has been observed in juvenile pearly mussels.
Besides the phytoplankton pearly mussels capture from the water column, their guts also contain small animals, protozoans, and detritus (nonliving particulate organic material). Recent studies show that mussels can capture and assimilate bacteria as well, a potentially important source of food in many fresh waters.
Another potential source of food for mussels is dissolved organic matter. Early studies showing that pearly mussels could take up simple organic compounds were largely discounted because such labile (unstable) compounds are rarely abundant in nature. Nevertheless, recent work on other bivalves suggests that dissolved organic matter may be a significant source of nutrition.
Of this complex mix of materials that pearly mussels acquire, what is actually required and assimilated?
Stable-isotope analyses of mussels taken from nature and of captive-reared mussels are beginning to offer some insight into this question. Nichols and Garling showed that pearly mussels in a small river were omnivorous, subsisting mainly on particles less than 2S micrometers in diameter, including algae, detritus, and bacteria. Bacterially derived carbon was apparently the primary source of soft-tissue carbon. However, bacteria alone cannot support mussel growth, because they lack the necessary long-chain fatty acids and sterols and are deficient in some amino acids. Bacteria may supplement other food resources, provide growth factors, or be the primary food In habitats such as headwater streams, where phytoplankton is scarce. Juvenile mussels have been most successfully reared m the laboratory on diets containing algae high in polyunsaturated fatty acids. Thus, it appears that the pearly mussel diet in nature may consist of algae, bacteria, detritus, and small animals and that at least some algae and bacteria may be required as a source of essential biochemicals.
Which of the following can be inferred about the “recent research?

QUESTION 23
One of the most intriguing stories of the Russian Revolution concerns the identity of Anastasia, the youngest daughter of Czar Nicholas II. During his reign over Russia, the Czar had planned to revoke many of the harsh laws established by previous czars. Some workers and peasants, however, clamored for more rapid social reform. In 1918 a group of these people, known as Bolsheviks, overthrew the government. On July 17 or 18, they murdered the Czar and what was thought to be his entire family. Although witnesses vouched that all the members of the Czar’s family had been executed, there were rumors suggesting that Anastasia had survived. Over the years, a number of women claimed to be Grand Duchess Anastasia.
Perhaps the best – known claimant was Anastasia Tschaikovsky, who was also known as Anna Anderson.
In 1920, eighteen months after the Czar’s execution, this terrified young woman was rescued from drowning in a Berlin river. She spent two years in a hospital, where she attempted to reclaim her health and shattered mind. The doctors and nurses thought that she resembled Anastasia and questioned heer about her background. She disclaimed any connection with the Czar’s family. Eight years later, though, she claimed that she was Anastasia. She said that she had been rescued by two Russian soldiers after the Czar and the rest of her family had been killed. Two brothers named Tschaikovsky had carried her into Romania. She had married one of the brothers, who had taken her to Berlin and left her there, penniless and without a vocation. Unable to invoke the aid of her mother’s family in Germany, she had tried to drown herself. During the next few years, scores of the Czar’s relatives, exservants, and acquaintances interviewed her. Many of these people said that her looks and mannerisms were evocative of the Anastasia that they had known. Her grandmother and other relatives denied that she was the real Anastasia, however. Tried of being accused of fraud, Anastasia immigrated to the United States in 1928 and took the name Anna Anderson. She still wished to prove that she was Anastasia, though, and returned to Germany in 1933 to bring suit against her mother’s family. There she declaimed to the court, asserting that she was indeed Anastasia and deserved her inheritance. In 1957, the court decided that it could neither confirm nor deny Anastasia’s identity. Although we will probably never know whether this woman was the Grand Duchess Anastasia, her search to establish her identity has been the subject of numerous books, plays, and movies.
She was unable to ___ the aid of her relative.

QUESTION 24

QUESTION 25

If 20 percent of the amount budgeted for vacation had instead been added to the amount budgeted for entertainment, which of the following is closest to the percent by which ihe amount budgeted for entertainment would have increased?

QUESTION 26
The first person in the group starts off by naming anything that is geographical. It could be a city, state, country, river, lake, or any proper geographical term. For example, the person might say,”Boston.” The second person has ten seconds to think of how the word ends and come up with another geographical term starting with that letter. The second participant might say, “Norway,” since the geographical term has to start with “N.” The third person would have to choose a word beginning with ” Y.” If a player fails to think of a correct answer within the time limit, that player is out of the game. The last person to survive is the champion.
Before you choose your own word, think about how …

QUESTION 27
If set 5 consists of the squares of the integers from -5 to 5. inclusive, how many elements are in set S ?

QUESTION 28
LAUGHTER : AMUSEMENT ::

QUESTION 29
Late Victorian and modern ideas of culture are indebted to Matthew Arnold, who, largely through his Culture and Anarchy (1869), placed the word at the center of debates about the goals of intellectual life and humanistic society. Arnold defined culture as “the pursuit of perfection by getting to know the best which has been thought and said.” Through this knowledge, Arnold hoped, we can turn “a fresh and free thought upon our stock notions and habits.” Although Arnold helped to define the purposes of the liberal arts curriculum in the century following the publication of Culture, three concrete forms of dissent from his views have had considerable impact of their own. The first protests Arnold’s fearful designation of
“anarchy” as culture’s enemy, viewing this dichotomy simply as another version of the struggle between a privileged power structure and radical challenges to its authority. But while Arnold certainly tried to define the arch – the legitimizing order of value – against the anarch of existentialist democracy, he himself was plagued in his soul by the blind arrogances of the reactionary powers in his world. The writer who regarded the contemporary condition with such apprehension in Culture is the poet who wrote “Dover Beach,” not an ideologue rounding up all the usual modern suspects. Another form of opposition saw Arnold’s culture as a perverse perpetuation of classical and literary learning, outlook, and privileges in a world where science had become the new arch and from which any substantively new order of thinking must develop. At the center of the “two cultures” debate were the goals of the formal educational curriculum, the principal vehicle through which Arnoldian culture operates. However, Arnold himself had viewed culture as enacting its life in a much more broadly conceived set of institutions. A third form is so-called “multiculturalism,” a movement aimed largely at gaining recognition for voices and visions that Arnoldian culture has implicitly suppressed. In educational practice, multiculturalists are interested in deflating the imperious authority that
“high culture” exercises over curriculum while bringing into play the principle that we must learn what is representative, for we have overemphasized what is exceptional. Though the multiculturalists’ conflict with Arnoldian culture has clear affinities with the radical critique, multiculturalism actually affirms Arnold by returning us more specifically to a tension inherent in the idea of culture rather than to the cultureanarchy dichotomy. The social critics, defenders of science, and multiculturalists insist that Arnold’s culture is simply a device for ordering us about. Instead, however, it is designed to register the gathering of ideological clouds on the horizon. There is no utopian motive in Arnold’s celebration of perfection.
Perfection mattered to Arnold as the only background against which we could form a just image of our actual circumstances, just as we can conceive finer sunsets and unheard melodies.
The author’s primary concern in the passage is to

QUESTION 30
BASKETBALL : HOOP

QUESTION 31
Exhibit.

QUESTION 32
In the xy-plane, the graph of a certain quadratic function has a single x-intercept and passes through the point (2.8). If the x-intercept of the graph is – X what is its y-intercept?
A)

B)

C)

D)

E)

QUESTION 33
The total weight of m bricks, all of which are equal in weight, is n pounds.

QUESTION 34
In the sixteenth century, an age of great marine and terrestrial exploration, Ferdinand Magellan led the first expedition to sail around the world. As a young Portuguese noble, he served the king of Portugal, but he became involved in the quagmire of political intrigue at court and lost the king’s favor. After he was dismissed from service to the king of Portugal, he offered to serve the future Emperor Charles V of Spain.
A papal decree of 1493 had assigned all land in the New World west of 50 degrees W longitude to Spain and all the land east of that line to Portugal. Magellan offered to prove that the East Indies fell under Spanish authority. On September 20, 1519, Magellan set sail from Spain with five ships. More than a year later, one of these ships was exploring the topography of South America in search of a water route across the continent. This ship sank, but the remaining four ships searched along the southern peninsula of South America. Finally they found the passage they sought near a latitude of 50 degrees S Magellan named this passage the Strait of All Saints, but today we know it as the Strait of Magellan. One ship deserted while in this passage and returned to Spain, so fewer sailors were privileged to gaze at that first panorama of the Pacific Ocean. Those who remained crossed the meridian we now call the International Date Line in the early spring of 1521 after ninety eight days on the Pacific Ocean. During those long days at sea, many of Magellan’s men died of starvation and disease. Later Magellan became involved in an insular conflict in the Philippines and was killed in a tribal battle. Only one ship and seventeen sailors under the command of the Basque navigator Elcano survived to complete the westward journey to Spain and thus prove once and for all that the world is round, with no precipice at the edge.
Four of the ships sought a passage along a southern ___.