ID: 3d658a5a

Some foraging models predict that the distance bees travel when foraging will decline as floral density increases, but
biologists Shalene Jha and Claire Kremen showed that bees’ behavior is inconsistent with this prediction if flowers in dense
patches are ______: bees will forage beyond patches of low species richness to acquire multiple resource types.

Which choice completes the text with the most logical and precise word or phrase?

A. depleted

B. homogeneous

C. immature

D. dispersed
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While most animals are incapable of passing somatic mutations—genetic alterations that arise in an organism’s
nonreproductive cells—on to their offspring, elkhorn coral (Acropora palmata) presents an intriguing ______: in a 2022 study,
researchers found that elkhorn coral produced offspring that inherited somatic mutations from a parent.

Which choice completes the text with the most logical and precise word or phrase?

A. hypothesis

B. affinity

C. anomaly

D. corroboration
 ID: fce80a36
In 2008 a complete set of ancient pessoi (glass game pieces) was uncovered from beneath a paving stone in modern-day
Israel. Due to their small size, pessoi were easily misplaced, making a whole set a rare find. This has led some experts to
suggest that the set may have been buried intentionally; however, without clear evidence, archaeologists are left to ______
what happened.

Which choice completes the text with the most logical and precise word or phrase?

A. speculate about

B. dismiss

C. expand on

D. catalog
 ID: 8b46bb51
A journalist and well-respected art critic of nineteenth-century Britain, Lady Elizabeth Rigby Eastlake did not hesitate to
publish reviews that went against popular opinion. One of her most divisive works was an essay questioning the idea of
photography as an emerging medium for fine art: in the essay, Eastlake ______ that the value of photographs was
informational rather than creative.

Which choice completes the text with the most logical and precise word or phrase?

A. exposed

B. asserted

C. discovered

D. doubted
 ID: e8c26398
To develop a method for measuring snow depth with laser beams, NASA physicist Yongxiang Hu relied on ______; identifying
broad similarities between two seemingly different phenomena, Hu used information about how ants move inside colonies
to calculate how the particles of light that make up laser beams travel through snow.

Which choice completes the text with the most logical and precise word or phrase?

A. a collaboration

B. an accessory

C. a contradiction

D. an analogy
 ID: f52cc78c
Text 1
Polar bears sustain themselves primarily by hunting seals on the Arctic sea ice, but rising ocean temperatures are causing
the ice to diminish, raising concerns about polar bear population declines as these large predators’ seal-hunting habitats
continue to shrink. A 2020 study examining polar bear populations across the Arctic concluded that populations affected by
sea-ice loss are at great risk of extinction by the end of the twenty-first century.
Text 2
Monitoring carried out by researchers from the Norwegian Polar Institute shows that the polar bear population on the Arctic
archipelago of Svalbard remains stable and well nourished despite rapidly declining sea ice in recent years. The researchers
attribute this population’s resilience in part to a shift in feeding strategies: in addition to hunting seals, the Svalbard polar
bears have begun relying on a diet of reindeer meat and birds’ eggs.

Based on the texts, how would the researchers in Text 2 most likely respond to the conclusion presented in the underlined
portion of Text 1?

A. By noting that it neglects the possibility of some polar bear populations adapting to changes in their environment

By suggesting that it is likely incorrect about the rates at which warming ocean temperatures have caused sea ice to melt
B. in the Arctic

C. By asserting that it overlooks polar bear populations that have not yet been affected by loss of seal-hunting habitats

D. By arguing that it fails to account for polar bears’ reliance on a single seal-hunting strategy
 ID: de2c2f57
Text 1
The fossil record suggests that mammoths went extinct around 11 thousand years (kyr) ago. In a 2021 study of
environmental DNA (eDNA)—genetic material shed into the environment by organisms—in the Arctic, Yucheng Wang and
colleagues found mammoth eDNA in sedimentary layers formed millennia later, around 4 kyr ago. To account for this
discrepancy, Joshua H. Miller and Carl Simpson proposed that arctic temperatures could preserve a mammoth carcass on
the surface, allowing it to leach DNA into the environment, for several thousand years.
Text 2
Wang and colleagues concede that eDNA contains DNA from both living organisms and carcasses, but for DNA to leach
from remains over several millennia requires that the remains be perpetually on the surface. Scavengers and weathering in
the Arctic, however, are likely to break down surface remains well before a thousand years have passed.

Which choice best describes how Text 1 and Text 2 relate to each other?

Text 1 discusses two approaches to studying mammoth extinction without advocating for either, whereas Text 2
A. advocates for one approach over the other.

Text 1 presents findings by Wang and colleagues and gives another research team’s attempt to explain those findings,
B. whereas Text 2 provides additional detail that calls that explanation into question.

Text 1 describes Wang and colleagues’ study and a critique of their methodology, whereas Text 2 offers additional details
C. showing that methodology to be sound.

Text 1 argues that new research has undermined the standard view of when mammoths went extinct, whereas Text 2
D. suggests a way to reconcile the standard view with that new research.
 ID: 27d9bb69
Text 1
Many studies in psychology have shown that people seek out information even when they know in advance that they have no
immediate use for it and that they won’t directly benefit from it. Such findings support the consensus view among
researchers of curiosity: namely, that curiosity is not instrumental but instead represents a drive to acquire information for its
own sake.
Text 2
While acknowledging that acquiring information is a powerful motivator, Rachit Dubey and colleagues ran an experiment to
test whether emphasizing the usefulness of scientific information could increase curiosity about it. They found that when
research involving rats and fruit flies was presented as having medical applications for humans, participants expressed
greater interest in learning about it than when the research was not presented as useful.

Based on the texts, how would Dubey and colleagues (Text 2) most likely respond to the consensus view discussed in Text
1?

A. By suggesting that curiosity may not be exclusively motivated by the desire to merely acquire information

By conceding that people may seek out information that serves no immediate purpose only because they think they can
B. use it later

C. By pointing out that it is challenging to determine when information-seeking serves no goal beyond acquiring information

D. By disputing the idea that curiosity can help explain apparently purposeless information-seeking behaviors
 ID: 17bf10de
Text 1
Despite its beautiful prose, The Guns of August, Barbara Tuchman’s 1962 analysis of the start of World War I, has certain
weaknesses as a work of history. It fails to address events in Eastern Europe just before the outbreak of hostilities, thereby
giving the impression that Germany was the war’s principal instigator. Had Tuchman consulted secondary works available to
her by scholars such as Luigi Albertini, she would not have neglected the influence of events in Eastern Europe on Germany’s
actions.
Text 2
Barbara Tuchman’s The Guns of August is an engrossing if dated introduction to World War I. Tuchman’s analysis of primary
documents is laudable, but her main thesis that European powers committed themselves to a catastrophic outcome by
refusing to deviate from military plans developed prior to the conflict is implausibly reductive.

Which choice best describes a difference in how the authors of Text 1 and Text 2 view Barbara Tuchman’s The Guns of
August?

The author of Text 1 argues that Tuchman should have relied more on the work of other historians, while the author of
A. Text 2 implies that Tuchman’s most interesting claims result from her original research.

The author of Text 1 believes that the scope of Tuchman’s research led her to an incorrect interpretation, while the author
B. of Text 2 believes that Tuchman’s central argument is overly simplistic.

The author of Text 1 asserts that the writing style of The Guns of August makes it worthwhile to read despite any
perceived deficiency in Tuchman’s research, while the author of Text 2 focuses exclusively on the weakness of Tuchman’s
C. interpretation of events.

The author of Text 1 claims that Tuchman would agree that World War I was largely due to events in Eastern Europe,
while the author of Text 2 maintains that Tuchman would say that Eastern European leaders were not committed to
D. military plans in the same way that other leaders were.
 ID: 12d81fc1
Text 1
Because literacy in Nahuatl script, the writing system of the Aztec Empire, was lost after Spain invaded central Mexico in the
1500s, it is unclear exactly how meaning was encoded in the script’s symbols. Although many scholars had assumed that
the symbols signified entire words, linguist Alfonso Lacadena theorized in 2008 that they signified units of language smaller
than words: individual syllables.
Text 2
The growing consensus among scholars of Nahuatl script is that many of its symbols could signify either words or syllables,
depending on syntax and content at any given site within a text. For example, the symbol signifying the word huipil (blouse)
in some contexts could signify the syllable “pil” in others, as in the place name “Chipiltepec.” Thus, for the Aztecs, reading
required a determination of how such symbols functioned each time they appeared in a text.

Based on the texts, how would the author of Text 2 most likely characterize Lacadena’s theory, as described in Text 1?

A. By praising the theory for recognizing that the script’s symbols could represent entire words

B. By arguing that the theory is overly influenced by the work of earlier scholars

C. By approving of the theory’s emphasis on how the script changed over time

D. By cautioning that the theory overlooks certain important aspects of how the script functioned
 ID: 9b01bcf4
The 1967 release of Harold Cruse’s book The Crisis of the Negro Intellectual isolated him from almost all other scholars and
activists of the American Civil Rights Movement—though many of those thinkers disagreed with each other, he nonetheless
found ways to disagree with them all. He thought that activists who believed that Black people such as himself should
culturally assimilate were naïve. But he also sharply criticized Black nationalists such as Marcus Garvey who wanted to
establish independent, self-contained Black economies and societies, even though Cruse himself identified as a Black
nationalist.

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

A. It describes a direction that Cruse felt the Civil Rights Movement ought to take.

B. It indicates that Cruse’s reputation as a persistent antagonist of other scholars is undeserved.

C. It describes a controversy that Cruse’s work caused within the Black nationalist movement.

D. It helps explain Cruse’s position with respect to the community of civil rights thinkers.
 ID: f6352bd3
Many archaeologists assume that large-scale engineering projects in ancient societies required an elite class to plan and
direct the necessary labor. However, recent discoveries, such as the excavation of an ancient canal near the Gulf Coast of
Alabama, have complicated this picture. Using radiocarbon dating, a team of researchers concluded that the 1.39-kilometer-
long canal was most likely constructed between 576 and 650 CE by an Indigenous society that was relatively free of social
classes.

Which choice best describes the overall structure of the text?

A. It describes a common view among archaeologists, then discusses a recent finding that challenges that view.

B. It outlines a method used in some archaeological fieldwork, then explains why an alternative method is superior to it.

It presents contradictory conclusions drawn by archaeologists, then evaluates a study that has apparently resolved that
C. contradiction.

D. It identifies a gap in scientific research, then presents a strategy used by some archaeologists to remedy that gap.
 ID: b4d29611
Michelene Pesantubbee, a historian and citizen of the Choctaw Nation, has identified a dilemma inherent to research on the
status of women in her tribe during the 1600s and 1700s: the primary sources from that era, travel narratives and other
accounts by male European colonizers, underestimate the degree of power conferred on Choctaw women by their traditional
roles in political, civic, and ceremonial life. Pesantubbee argues that the Choctaw oral tradition and findings from
archaeological sites in the tribe’s homeland supplement the written record by providing crucial insights into those roles.

Which choice best describes the overall structure of the text?

It details the shortcomings of certain historical sources, then argues that research should avoid those sources
A. altogether.

It describes a problem that arises in research on a particular topic, then sketches a historian’s approach to addressing
B. that problem.

C. It lists the advantages of a particular research method, then acknowledges a historian’s criticism of that method.

It characterizes a particular topic as especially challenging to research, then suggests a related topic for historians to
D. pursue instead.
 ID: 8bc66f89
Part of the Atacama Desert in Peru has surprisingly rich plant life despite receiving almost no rainfall. Moisture from winter
fog sustains plants once they’re growing, but the soil’s tough crust makes it hard for seeds to germinate in the first place.
Local birds that dig nests in the ground seem to be of help: they churn the soil, exposing buried seeds to moisture and
nutrients. Indeed, in 2016 Cristina Rengifo Faiffer found that mounds of soil dug up by birds were far more fertile and
supported more seedlings than soil in undisturbed areas.

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

A. It elaborates on the idea that the top layer of Atacama Desert soil forms a tough crust.

B. It describes the process by which seeds are deposited into Atacama Desert soil.

C. It identifies the reason particular bird species dig nests in Atacama Desert soil.

D. It explains how certain birds promote seed germination in Atacama Desert soil.
 ID: db3ad406
While researching a topic, a student has taken the following notes:
Stars form in a galaxy when gravity causes a massive cloud of dust and gas to collapse.
A galaxy in a phase of rapid star formation is called a starburst galaxy.
Quenching is a process in which a galaxy loses star-forming gas.
A galaxy that no longer forms stars is called a quenched galaxy.
A quenched galaxy has entered the poststarburst phase.

The student wants to explain what a quenched galaxy is. Which choice most effectively uses relevant information from the
notes to accomplish this goal?

A. Before quenching, a starburst galaxy will form stars at a rapid rate.

B. When it becomes quenched, a starburst galaxy enters the poststarburst phase.

C. Having entered the poststarburst phase, a quenched galaxy is one that no longer forms stars.

D. A starburst galaxy will lose star-forming gas and eventually become quenched.
 ID: 34e1124f
While researching a topic, a student has taken the following notes:
In geology, an Aeolian landform is one that has been created by the wind.
In Greek mythology, Aeolus is the keeper of the winds.
Aeolian landforms are created when the wind erodes, transports, or deposits material.
A mushroom rock is a rock formation in which the top is wider than the base.
A mushroom rock can be formed when the wind erodes the base and the top at different rates.

The student wants to provide an explanation and an example of Aeolian landforms. Which choice most effectively uses
relevant information from the notes to accomplish this goal?

A. Aeolian landforms are created by different wind-based processes; for example, some are created by wind erosion.

Aeolian landforms—landforms created by the wind—include the mushroom rock, a rock formation in which the wind
B. erodes the base of the rock faster than the top.

Erosion, transportation, and deposition are three examples of how the wind can create Aeolian landforms and mushroom
C. rocks.

A mushroom rock is a rock formation that owes its shape to the wind, a natural force associated with Aeolus in Greek
D. mythology.
 ID: 622a351d
While researching a topic, a student has taken the following notes:
In 1978, Sámi activists staged protests to block the construction of a dam on the Alta River in Norway.
The dam would disrupt Sámi fishing and reindeer herding.
The dam was ultimately built, but the Alta conflict had a lasting impact.
It brought international attention to the issue of Sámi rights.
It led to a set of 2005 legal protections establishing Sámi rights to lands, waters, and resources.

The student wants to make and support a generalization about the Alta conflict. Which choice most effectively uses relevant
information from the notes to accomplish this goal?

During the Alta conflict, Sámi activists staged protests to block the construction of a dam on the Alta River in Norway
A. that would disrupt local fishing and reindeer herding.

B. Although the dam that the Sámi activists had protested was ultimately built, the Alta conflict had a lasting impact.

Sámi rights to lands, waters, and resources received international attention and legal protections as a result of the Alta
C. conflict.

The Alta conflict had a lasting impact, resulting in international attention and legal protections for Sámi rights to lands,
D. waters, and resources.
 ID: 5222ffab
While researching a topic, a student has taken the following notes:
Neuroscientists Krishnan Padmanabhan and Zhen Chen sought to better understand the workings of the brain’s
olfactory system.
They devised a study using mathematical models.
They found that certain fibers allow the brain to toggle from one method of processing smells to another.
In one method, cells in the piriform cortex (where the perception of odor forms) capture olfactory information at a
given moment.
In the other, the cells track changes in olfactory information over time.

The student wants to summarize the study’s findings. Which choice most effectively uses relevant information from the
notes to accomplish this goal?

To arrive at these findings, which describe dual methods of processing smells in the piriform cortex, Padmanabhan and
A. Chen devised a study using mathematical models.

Padmanabhan and Chen showed that olfactory information is captured by cells in the piriform cortex, where the
B. perception of odor forms.

Using mathematical models, Padmanabhan and Chen devised a study to better understand the workings of the brain’s
C. olfactory system.

According to Padmanabhan and Chen, the brain can toggle between capturing olfactory information at a given moment
D. and tracking changes in that information over time.
 ID: 5b8b69a2
While researching a topic, a student has taken the following notes:
Archaeologist Jon Erlandson and colleagues argue that humans first arrived in the Americas by sea.
They propose that humans traveled between Pacific Ocean islands and coastlines from northeast Asia to the
Americas.
Many of these islands and coastal zones were later submerged as glaciers melted and sea levels rose.
The researchers think that “a coastal route, including kelp forests and estuaries, would have provided a rich mix of
marine, estuarine, riverine, and terrestrial resources” such as seaweeds, fish, and birds.
This proposed scenario is known as the kelp highway hypothesis.

The student wants to summarize the kelp highway hypothesis. Which choice most effectively uses relevant information from
the notes to accomplish this goal?

Pacific Ocean islands and coastlines likely contained “a rich mix of marine, estuarine, riverine, and terrestrial resources”
A. such as seaweeds, fish, and birds, according to researchers.

One argument about how humans first arrived in the Americas is the kelp highway hypothesis proposed by Jon Erlandson
B. and colleagues.

Humans may have first arrived in the Americas by sea, traveling between Pacific Ocean islands and coastlines and
C. subsisting on a variety of resources.

D. As glaciers melted and sea levels rose, many Pacific Ocean islands and coastal zones were submerged.
 ID: 109d5bbb
With some 16,000 in attendance, the Second World Black and African Festival of Arts and ______ or FESTAC ‘77, as the event
was more commonly known—became the largest pan-African event on record. FESTAC drew people from around the world
to Lagos, Nigeria, for a monthlong celebration of Black and African art, scholarship, and activism.

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

A. Culture:

B. Culture—

C. Culture,

D. Culture
 ID: 6d4b2e1e
The 1977 play And the Soul Shall Dance depicts two Japanese American farming families in Depression-era Southern
California. Critics have noted the way pioneering ______ compares the experiences of issei (Japanese nationals who
emigrated to America) and nisei (their American-born children).

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

A. playwright, Wakako Yamauchi,

B. playwright, Wakako Yamauchi

C. playwright Wakako Yamauchi,

D. playwright Wakako Yamauchi

 ID: a14eef71
In 2015, a team led by materials scientists Anirudha Sumant and Diana Berman succeeded in reducing the coefficient of
friction (COF) between two surfaces to the lowest possible level—superlubricity. A nearly frictionless (and, as its name
suggests, extremely slippery) state, ______

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

A. when their COF drops below 0.01, two surfaces reach superlubricity.

B. two surfaces, when their COF drops below 0.01, reach superlubricity.

C. reaching superlubricity occurs when two surfaces’ COF drops below 0.01.

D. superlubricity is reached when two surfaces’ COF drops below 0.01.

 ID: c101fc44
How do scientists determine what foods were eaten by extinct hominins such as Neanderthals? In the past, researchers
were limited to studying the marks found on the fossilized teeth of skeletons, but in 2017 a team led by Laura Weyrich of the
Australian Centre for Ancient DNA tried something ______ the DNA found in Neanderthals’ fossilized dental plaque.

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

A. new: sequencing

B. new; sequencing

C. new, sequencing:

D. new. Sequencing
 ID: d46ac7e7
A second-generation Japanese American, Wataru Misaka ______ in World War II (1941-45) and won two amateur national
basketball championships at the University of Utah when he joined the New York Knicks for the 1947-48 season, becoming
the first non-white basketball player in the US’s top professional league.

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

A. already served

B. was already serving

C. already serves

D. had already served

 ID: fdb16e20
Quantum particles of light—photons—provide an unhackable means of transmitting encryption keys over networks, as
attempts to observe particles in quantum states will invariably alter the particles ______ dismantle any information they
transmit.

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

A. and in the process,

B. and, in the process,

C. and in the process—

D. and, in the process