1.

Section 1, Module 1: Reading and Writing / unknown (27)

２. Section 1, Module 2: Reading and Writing / hard (27)

Section: Section 1, Module 1: Reading and Writing, Difficulty:

unknown (27 questions)
1.
Which choice completes the text with the most logical and precise word or phrase?
Microplastics are a common pollutant in large masses of water like rivers. High
concentrations and ______ among particles—variations in size, shape, and material—make it
onerous to comprehensively classify the microplastics in a water sample, so Alvarez-
Zeferino et al. are exploring a device to help quickly and accurately identify certain
characteristics.
A. incompatibilities
B. restraints
C. disruptions
D. inconsistencies

2.
Which choice completes the text with the most logical and precise word or phrase?
Researchers have long debated the origins of silver used in European coins from the 600s
through the early 800s CE. Geochemical analysis by Kershaw et al. of 49 coins dating to
660–820 CE provides concrete evidence that reconciles two competing theories: early coins
were made from Byzantine silver, and later coins used Frankish silver, findings that provide
firm details in a previously ______ area of study.
A. esoteric
B. speculative
C. authoritative
D. solitary

3.
As used in the text, what does the word “mastery” most nearly mean?
The following text is adapted from Alice Dunbar Nelson’s 1899 short story “The Fisherman of
Pass Christian.” Pass Christian is a city in the US state of Mississippi.
The swift breezes on the beach at Pass Christian meet and conflict as though
each strove for the mastery of the air. The land-breeze blows down through the
pines, resinous, fragrant, cold, bringing breath-like memories of dim, dark woods
shaded by myriad pine-needles. The breeze from the Gulf is warm and soft and
languorous, blowing up from the south with its suggestion of tropical warmth.
A. Domination
B. Familiarity
C. Skillfulness
D. Comprehension

4.
Which choice completes the text with the most logical and precise word or phrase?
In the search for new impact craters on Mars, the roles of seismic monitoring and orbital
imaging as data sources are ______: when vibrations detected with seismic monitoring
indicate roughly where an impact has occurred, researchers can use orbital images of that
relatively limited area of the rocky surface to precisely locate a new crater.
A. exhaustive
B. redundant
C. interchangeable
D. complementary

5.
Which choice best states the main purpose of the text?
Understanding juvenile sea turtles’ migratory patterns is crucial for conservation efforts.
While adult sea turtles are well studied, little is known about juveniles during their oceanic
stage, when they spend most of their time in the open ocean. To learn about this stage,
researchers tagged and released six juvenile green sea turtles (Chelonia mydas) into the
eastern Caribbean Sea. Their findings revealed that the majority of the turtles passively
drifted with ocean currents throughout the region. However, two individuals swam against
the currents, possibly in search of foraging grounds off the coast of South America.
A. To summarize research on an understudied stage of sea turtle development
B. To suggest reasons why some juvenile sea turtles swim against the ocean currents
C. To compare the behavior of adult and juvenile sea turtles during migration
D. To describe successful conservation efforts for sea turtles

6.
Which choice best describes the function of the underlined portion in the text as a whole?
In a section of a 1976 essay discussing cinema of the United States, James Baldwin
observed that Lady Sings the Blues (1972), a biographical film about jazz singer Billie
Holiday, can be said to reflect Holiday’s life and the experiences of Black Americans only “by
courtesy.” According to Baldwin, the failure of this film to authentically represent its subject
matter is indicative of a larger trend in films of the era: rather than leveraging the medium’s
potential to confront difficult truths, filmmakers and studios often resorted to platitudes
about contemporary US society.
A. It expresses Baldwin’s initial reaction to a US film that the text suggests he would later
reconsider.
B. It illustrates a view of Baldwin’s that the text explains departed substantially from the
consensus view held by US film critics.
C. It characterizes the nature of the disconnect Baldwin identified between reality and how it
was represented in US cinema.
D. It conveys Baldwin’s rejection of contemporary US cinema in favor of earlier films that are
more authentic representations of society.

7.
According to the text, what is someone who professionally evaluates books called?
Notes from a Liar and Her Dog was Gennifer Choldenko’s debut novel. It was published in
2001. A debut novel is the first book that an author has published. Debut novels are
especially interesting to literary critics (people whose job it is to evaluate books) and readers
because these books offer a look at new voices in the literary world.
A. An author
B. A book publisher
C. A bookseller
D. A literary critic

8.
Which statement about the Hispanic Society of America is best supported by the text?
Founded in 1904, the Hispanic Society of America showcases the arts and cultures of
Spanish-speaking and Portuguese-speaking regions around the world, including Latin
America. It is located in New York City and has more than 18,000 objects in its museum
collection. Since 2000, a number of other institutions devoted to Latino cultures have
opened in the United States. A notable example is the National Hispanic Cultural Center in
Albuquerque. It focuses on the literature, art, and cultures of Latin America as well as of
Latino communities in the United States.
A. It is no longer located in New York City.
B. It was founded after 2000.
C. It is visited by more people than any other Latino cultural institution in the US.
D. Its collection includes over 18,000 objects.

9.
Which choice best states the main idea of the text?
The following text is adapted from Daniel Defoe’s 1704 nonfiction book The Storm.
If I judge right, ’tis the duty of an historian to set everything in its own light, and to
convey matter of fact upon its legitimate authority, and no other: I mean thus, (for
I would be as explicit as I can) that where a story is vouched to him with sufficient
authority, he ought to give the world the special testimonial of its proper voucher,
or else he is not just to the story: and where it comes without such sufficient
authority, he ought to say so; otherwise he is not just to himself.
A. Historians rarely have access to all the information relevant to a particular event, so no
single work of history should be taken as definitive.
B. The only figures that a historian should quote are those who are widely viewed as
credible.
C. Historians should clearly indicate the extent to which each of their sources is trustworthy.
D. Because historians cannot tell whose memories they should trust, they should avoid
relying on eyewitness accounts of events.

10.
Which quotation from a translation of The Underdogs most effectively illustrates the claim?
The Underdogs is a 1915 novel by Mariano Azuela, originally written in Spanish. In the novel,
Azuela depicts the character Camilla as experiencing a change in how she perceives her
immediate surroundings: ______
A. “Camilla’s tongue clove to her mouth, heavy and damp as a rag; she could not utter a
word.”
B. “All nature was as she had found it before, evening upon evening; but in the stones and
the dry weeds, amid the fragrance of the air and the light whir of falling leaves, Camilla
sensed a new strangeness, a vast desolation in everything about her.”
C. “A dead leaf shook slowly loose from the crest of a tree swinging slowly on the wind, fell
like a small dead butterfly at her feet. [Camilla] bent down and took it in her fingers.”
D. “[Camilla] closed her eyes fast to hold back the tears that welled up in them. Then, with
the back of her hand, she wiped her wet cheeks, and just as she had done three days ago,
fled with all the swiftness of a young deer.”

11.
Which choice best describes data from the table that support the student’s claim?
Members of the Girl Scouts of America, by Age
Category, 1992–1995 (in thousands)
Category 1992 1993 1994 1995
Ambassadors (older than 17) 863 826 802 784
Seniors (14–17 years) 50 43 45 52
Daisies (5–6 years) 207 191 190 195
Brownies (6–8 years) 1,319 1,225 1,181 1,142
The Girl Scouts of America is an organization famous for its annual sales of several varieties
of cookies, including S’Mores. A student is writing an essay on the history of the
organization. The student claims that from 1992 to 1995 the organization’s popularity
regularly peaked among participants in a certain age range before declining among older
participants as Girl Scout activities began to compete with other interests.
A. Only once between 1992 and 1995 did the number of Ambassadors in the Girl Scouts
exceed the number of Brownies.
B. There were 1,319,000 Brownies in the Girl Scouts in 1992 but 1,142,000 in 1995.
C. Throughout the years from 1992 to 1995, the number of Daisies in the Girl Scouts
exceeded the number of Ambassadors.
D. For each year from 1992 to 1995, there were fewer Seniors in the Girl Scouts than there
were Brownies.

12.
Which finding, if true, would most directly weaken the researcher’s claim?
The Umpila language of Australia has 21 vowel and consonant sounds. In contrast, the Taa
language of southern Africa has over 100. Why would languages differ in this way? One
researcher has claimed that when modern humans arose in Africa, they spoke a single
language, but as humans gradually spread throughout Africa and then around the globe, that
language developed into new languages. Those developed into still more languages as small
bands of humans spread even farther, with each new language retaining fewer sounds from
humanity’s original language.
A. Languages that emerged in Central America tend to have fewer sounds than languages
that emerged in Western Europe do, and Central America is farther away from Africa than
Western Europe is.
B. Languages that emerged in Europe and Western Asia tend to have more sounds than
languages that emerged in Africa do.
C. The number of sounds is fairly consistent across the various languages that emerged in
the last parts of Africa to be settled by humans.
D. A wider range of sounds is found across the languages of Africa as a whole than across
the languages of South America as a whole.

13.
Which choice most logically completes the text?
Antonia Olivia Dolan and colleagues had musicians and nonmusicians with clinically average
hearing listen to recordings of nature sounds and music in popular genres like pop and
classic rock and adjust the volume to optimize their listening enjoyment. The researchers
found that for a given recording that a musician and nonmusician identified as their favorite
among those included in the study, optimal volume tended to be higher for the musician than
for the nonmusician. Thus, if a musician and nonmusician both identified Beyoncé’s “Crazy in
Love” as their favorite recording and the musician preferred to listen to it at a volume of 84.8
decibels, the nonmusician would be expected to ______
A. find listening to “Crazy in Love” at 84.8 decibels less enjoyable than listening to it at a
lower volume.
B. prefer listening to other music at 84.8 decibels over listening to “Crazy in Love” at that
volume.
C. enjoy listening to the nature sounds at 84.8 decibels more than listening to “Crazy in
Love” at 84.8 decibels.
D. not find it enjoyable to listen to any recordings at a volume as low as 84.8 decibels.

14.
Which choice most logically completes the text?
Outi Tervo and team studied the effect of human-caused noise on narwhals (Monodon
monoceros), arctic marine mammals that are sensitive to acoustic changes in their
environment. Hypothesizing that elevated sound levels affect foraging among narwhals,
Tervo’s team compared narwhal diving behaviors in natural sound conditions with those
behaviors in two human-caused sound exposure conditions—ship sounds and ship sounds
coupled with sonic pulses. Both exposure conditions resulted in significant decreases in the
number and target depth of deep dives (associated with foraging) relative to natural
conditions. However, differences between diving behaviors in the two exposure types were
negligible, a finding that could be attributed to the fact that ______
A. sonic pulses can be heard at significantly greater ocean depths than ship sounds can.
B. the narwhals weren’t as sensitive to human-caused sounds as the researchers had
predicted.
C. ship sounds contribute so much to the overall sound level that the addition of sonic
pulses has little effect on the narwhals’ auditory environment.
D. narwhals forage at shallower depths in the presence of ship sounds alone than in the
presence of ship sounds coupled with sonic pulses.
15.
Which choice completes the text so that it conforms to the conventions of Standard English?
The atomic structure of an element ______ the element’s place on the periodic table.
A. to determine
B. determining
C. determines
D. having determined

16.
Which choice completes the text so that it conforms to the conventions of Standard English?
Museo Casa Canales, a history museum in Jayuya, Puerto Rico, is one of more than eighty
museums in the US territory. These museums present a wide range of information about
Puerto Rico, showcasing everything from the territory’s history to ______ architecture to its
coffee.
A. its
B. they’re
C. their
D. it’s

17.
Which choice completes the text so that it conforms to the conventions of Standard English?
As an archaeologist, Dr. Rubén G. ______ studies historical locations all across the US
Southwest and Mesoamerica, a region that includes ancient Maya sites like Ekʼ Balam in
Mexico.
A. Mendoza;
B. Mendoza
C. Mendoza,
D. Mendoza:

18.
Which choice completes the text so that it conforms to the conventions of Standard English?
On January 11, 1996, the space shuttle Endeavour blasted off into space, commencing
Mission ______ eight days and twenty-two hours, the mission ended when the shuttle
landed at Kennedy Space Center in Florida.
A. STS-72. Lasting
B. STS-72, lasting
C. STS-72 lasting
D. STS-72, it lasted

19.
Which choice completes the text so that it conforms to the conventions of Standard English?
Growing as large as three meters in diameter, the leaves of the giant Amazonian waterlily
feature a complex network of radiating veins that provide structural ______ in thickness from
the center to the edges, these veins allow the leaves to maintain their large size and
buoyancy with minimal material, optimizing light capture and photosynthesis.
A. support, decreasing
B. support decreasing
C. support. Decreasing
D. support, while decreasing
20.
Which choice completes the text so that it conforms to the conventions of Standard English?
Recordings of electrical activity in the brain, ______ increased activity in brain areas
associated with suppressing motor functions.
A. electrograms show that while responding to hypothetical match scenarios, the most
highly skilled soccer players have
B. responses to hypothetical match scenarios show that the most highly skilled soccer
players have electrograms with
C. the most highly skilled soccer players responding to hypothetical match scenarios have
electrograms that show
D. hypothetical match scenario responses show that the most highly skilled soccer players
captured in electrograms have

21.
Which choice completes the text so that it conforms to the conventions of Standard English?
In a chemical equation, the value known as molar mass is useful for converting between the
mass of the reactants and the mass of the product. The liquid ______ have molar masses of
186.06 and 156.31 g/mol, respectively.
A. compounds, hexafluorobenzene (C6F6) and undecane (C11H24)
B. compounds, hexafluorobenzene (C6F6) and undecane (C11H24),
C. compounds hexafluorobenzene (C6F6) and undecane (C11H24)
D. compounds hexafluorobenzene (C6F6) and undecane (C11H24),

22.
Which choice completes the text with the most logical transition?
While some researchers have identified the planet Kepler-1552b as potentially habitable, it’s
unlikely that humanity will be able to take advantage of its favorable conditions anytime soon
—it’s 2,507 light years away. ______ humanity must first focus on making planets within our
solar system more habitable.
A. For example,
B. Likewise,
C. Instead,
D. Next,

23.
Which choice completes the text with the most logical transition?
Artists’ palettes—the surfaces on which painters arrange and mix their paints—can provide
valuable insights into the painters’ creative processes. In her 2024 book The Artist’s Palette,
Alexandra Loske analyzes the palettes of 50 different painters across 500 years. ______
Loske reveals clues about the techniques and practices of such artists as Kerry James
Marshall, Artemisia Gentileschi, and Vincent van Gogh.
A. However,
B. In comparison,
C. Lastly,
D. In doing so,

24.
Which choice completes the text with the most logical transition?
As Iestyn Barr and his team of researchers discovered when establishing the glacial timeline
of Antarctica, the Transantarctic Mountains—a 3,500-km mountain range spanning the
continent—are home to glaciers of at least 60 million years in age. ______ the researchers
concluded, Antarctica had glaciers long before the formation of its continent-wide ice sheet
34 million years ago.
A. By contrast,
B. Thus,
C. Even so,
D. Nevertheless,

25.
Which choice completes the text with the most logical transition?
Brain imaging research led by neuroscientist Dwaynica Greaves found that actors showed
suppressed responses in the left anterior prefrontal cortex (the portion of the brain
associated with self-awareness) when their names were called during performances; ______
the actors’ responses were normal in nonacting contexts. These findings suggest that when
embodying characters, performers may temporarily set aside their personal identities.
A. specifically,
B. likewise,
C. thus,
D. conversely,

26.
The student wants to compare the length of time Fannie May Salter and Ida Lewis worked as
lighthouse keepers. Which choice most effectively uses relevant information from the notes
to accomplish this goal?
While researching a topic, a student has taken the following notes:
Lighthouses send out crucial light signals to help ships and other watercraft navigate at
night.
Before automation, lighthouses were run by lighthouse keepers.
 Fannie May Salter was the lighthouse keeper at Turkey Point Light in Maryland.
She held this position for twenty-two years (1925–1947).
Ida Lewis was the lighthouse keeper at Lime Rock Light in Rhode Island.
She held this position for fifty-four years (1857–1911).
A. Fannie May Salter and Ida Lewis were both lighthouse keepers at a time when such a
person was needed to operate a lighthouse.
B. From 1925 to 1947, the nighttime waters of Maryland were more navigable thanks to
lighthouse keepers Fannie May Salter and Ida Lewis.
C. Before automation, lighthouse keepers like Fannie May Salter, who served for twenty-two
years, and Ida Lewis were crucial to ensuring safe navigation for watercraft.
D. Fannie May Salter worked as a lighthouse keeper for twenty-two years, but Ida Lewis did
so for even longer: fifty-four years.

27.
The student wants to indicate the location of the Isthmus of Ierapetra. Which choice most
effectively uses relevant information from the notes to accomplish this goal?
While researching a topic, a student has taken the following notes:
An isthmus is a strip of land that connects two larger pieces of land across an expanse
of water.
It is also known as a land bridge.
The Isthmus of Ierapetra connects the Siteia municipality to the rest of the island of
Crete.
The Isthmus of Ierapetra is located in the Mediterranean Sea.
A. An isthmus, or land bridge, like the Isthmus of Ierapetra, connects two larger pieces of
land.
B. An isthmus, also known as a land bridge, is a strip of land that connects two larger pieces
of land across an expanse of water.
C. One example of an isthmus is the Isthmus of Ierapetra.
D. The Isthmus of Ierapetra is located in the Mediterranean Sea, where it connects the Siteia
municipality to the rest of the island of Crete.
Section: Section 1, Module 2: Reading and Writing, Difficulty:
hard (27 questions)
1.
Which choice completes the text with the most logical and precise word or phrase?
Exposed to harsh environmental conditions for centuries, lighthouses such as La Jument
lighthouse off the coast of Brittany, France, exemplify the ______ between marine structures
and ocean forces: the continuous impact of breaking waves necessitates periodic
reinforcements to or redesigns of the structures that in turn may alter local wave patterns.
A. interplay
B. tension
C. incongruity
D. continuum

2.
Which choice completes the text with the most logical and precise word or phrase?
______ the mythological and heroic subject matter often found in works by Horace Vernet
and other establishment figures, Honoré Daumier’s painting The Third-Class Carriage
instead focuses on something decidedly mundane: working-class travelers in a third-class
railway car.
A. Eschewing
B. Expounding
C. Caricaturing
D. Appraising

3.
Which choice completes the text with the most logical and precise word or phrase?
Though copies of The Adventures of Indiana Jones in Wenceslas Square in Prague on
January 16, 1989—an underground computer game that was created anonymously in 1989
as an act of political protest against the authoritarian regime of what was then
Czechoslovakia—were originally distributed ______, the game is now readily available online
for anyone to play.
A. dispassionately
B. disingenuously
C. surreptitiously
D. succinctly

4.
Which choice completes the text with the most logical and precise word or phrase?
In their study of caterpillars in fragmented forests (formerly contiguous forests that have
been broken into isolated patches by roads or other interruptions), James Mickley et al.
stress that although fragmentation inevitably ______ alterations to local ecological
processes, the changes will likely have a greater impact on Catocala ilia, a specialist feeding
on a limited number of plant species, than on a species like Achatia distincta that feeds on
several.
A. engenders
B. attenuates
C. preempts
D. subsumes

5.
Which choice best describes the overall structure of the text?
Establishing protected areas (PAs), such as the Mamanuca Islands in Fiji, is a common
conservation strategy, but because PAs restrict some kinds of economic activity, it’s widely
thought that they hinder economic development. This perception is driven in part by the fact
that economic assessments often don’t capture the indirect effects of tourism linked to PAs.
But Hasita Bhammar et al. found that tourism associated with the Mamanuca Islands boosts
local demand for goods and services in other economic sectors, resulting in, for instance,
increased income from retail in nearby areas.
A. It explains how PAs typically affect economic development in the regions where they are
established, summarizes the findings of several economic studies that support this
explanation, and then concedes that a particular PA is an exception to the general trend.
B. It introduces a widely held belief about the effect PAs have on the economy, proposes a
reason for that belief’s prevalence, and then details a study whose findings seemingly
conflict with that belief.
C. It makes a generalization about the difficulty of using PAs to reconcile economic and
conservation priorities, demonstrates why most PAs fall short of achieving that goal, and
then holds up a particular PA as an example of how that goal can be achieved.
D. It states a hypothesis that accounts for why PAs generally negatively impact local
economies, outlines how a research team’s findings support that hypothesis, and then
suggests how a novel methodology led a separate team of researchers to a different
conclusion.

6.
Which choice best describes the function of the underlined portion in the text as a whole?
Typically, synthetic leather is petroleum based, but materials scientists searching for an
ecologically sustainable alternative have used various bacteria that secrete linear chains of
glucose, forming a dense mesh of cellulose called a pellicle, which is leatherlike except in
color. The standard process for dyeing leather generates substantial wastewater and other
undesirable byproducts, so adopting such a regimen would run counter to the ecological
promise of the pellicle approach. To address this, Kenneth T. Walker and colleagues worked
to modify Komagataeibacter rhaeticus bacteria to produce a pellicle with embedded
pigmentation cells, thereby allowing the pellicle to “dye” itself from the inside.
A. To illustrate how the researchers adapted the pellicle approach to overcome a potential
impediment to their main goal as presented in the text
B. To concede that the researchers’ main goal as described in the text will be challenging to
achieve due to the standard coloring approach being impractical for use on a pellicle
C. To indicate the characteristic of conventional synthetic leathers that makes those leathers
poorly suited to achieve the researchers’ main goal as presented in the text
D. To describe a consideration that led the researchers to employ an alternative approach to
coloring a pellicle that allowed them to achieve their main goal as presented in the text

7.
Which choice best describes the relationship between the two texts?
Text 1
Mooseberry (Viburnum edule) plants are native to Alaska, where harsh conditions have
historically impeded potential invasive species. As the boreal climate has warmed in recent
decades, however, common knotgrass (Polygonum aviculare) plants have established
themselves in Alaska. Previous research conducted in non-boreal ecosystems has
documented warming-induced increases in summer temperatures benefiting invasive
species more than native species.

Text 2
At a site near Fairbanks, Alaska, Christa Mulder and Katie Spellman tracked V. edule and P.
aviculare, along with other native and invasive species, over several years. They observed
that although average summer temperatures were substantially higher in some years of the
study than in others, neither V. edule nor P. aviculare showed any significant variation in
summer growth patterns from year to year.
A. Text 2 explains a study that suggests an alternative explanation for the trend observed in
the research discussed in Text 1.
B. Text 2 describes a methodology that helps researchers avoid a problem encountered in
the studies discussed in Text 1.
C. Text 2 presents a finding that casts doubt on the generalizability of the research
discussed in Text 1.
D. Text 2 discusses an observation that challenges the validity of the findings described in
Text 1.

8.
Information in the text best supports which statement about Azara’s night monkeys?
Optimal foraging theory (OFT) holds that animals’ foraging behaviors reflect cost-benefit
trade-offs that vary by species and with dynamic ecological circumstances. One such
circumstance is lunar intensity, which W.J. Cresswell and Stephen Harris found to be
negatively associated with foraging by European badgers but Eduardo Fernández-Duque
and colleagues found to be positively associated with foraging by Azara’s night monkeys.
This discrepancy is explicable in terms of OFT: the monkeys’ greater reliance on vision
means that higher lunar intensity benefits them more than it benefits the badgers.
A. If the monkeys’ foraging behavior under increased lunar intensity actually reflects a cost-
benefit trade-off, their behavior should be more similar to that of European badgers than it
is.
B. If the advantages that the monkeys gain from increased lunar intensity explain the change
in their foraging behavior, those advantages are likely shared by some other species that are
not heavily reliant on vision.
C. If increased lunar intensity imposed the same costs on the monkeys that it imposes on
European badgers, there would be no association between lunar intensity and the monkeys’
foraging.
D. If increased lunar intensity creates any disadvantages for the monkeys, those
disadvantages are more than compensated for by the advantages that the monkeys gain.

9.
Which choice best describes data in the table that support the city planner’s conclusion?
Ranking of Environmental and Sociocultural Benefits of Urban Agriculture (scale
of 1 to 25; 1 = highest)
Project General
Social or ecological service leaders Stakeholders public
improvement of social cohesion 17 10 9
prevention of soil erosion 13 11 23
conservation of genetic variability 5 18 16
improvement of urban aesthetics 8 4 6
and art inspiration
 Project General
Social or ecological service leaders Stakeholders public
enhancement of pollination 1 7 12
Esther Sanyé-Mengual, Kathrin Specht, and their team surveyed three groups of people in
Bologna, Italy—leaders of urban agriculture projects, stakeholders in urban agriculture (e.g.,
food researchers and urban farming associations), and the general public—to compare their
views about the extent to which urban agriculture contributes to 25 social or ecological
services that the team identified. The researchers used these ratings to rank the services for
each group, with a ranking of 1 indicating that a group perceives that urban agriculture
benefits that service the most. Using only the rankings shown in the table, a city planner in
Bologna who is promoting a new urban agriculture project concludes that advertisements
aimed at project leaders should emphasize the project’s benefit to the enhancement of
pollination.
A. The conservation of genetic variability was ranked lower for project leaders than it was for
the general public.
B. The enhancement of pollination was ranked higher for project leaders than it was for
stakeholders.
C. The enhancement of pollination was ranked higher for project leaders than were the other
four services.
D. The improvement of social cohesion was ranked higher for project leaders than was the
enhancement of pollination.

10.
Which choice best presents a conclusion about the habits of New Year’s resolution makers
that is best supported by information in the text and the table?
Percentages of New Year's Resolution Makers Who Make Certain
Kinds of Resolutions
Type of resolution Age 18-29 Age 30-49 Age 50-64 Age 65+
Health and exercise 79 80 79 76
Finances 68 63 56 47
Personal relationships 63 53 58 52
 Type of resolution Age 18-29 Age 30-49 Age 50-64 Age 65+
Hobbies 65 53 51 45
A Pew Research Center survey conducted in January 2024 found that three out of ten US
adults make at least one New Year’s resolution (a promise for the year ahead), while half of
those who make a resolution make more than one. The survey asked participants what kinds
of resolutions they made and separated them into several categories. The table presents
percentages of people who make particular kinds of New Year’s resolutions among those
who choose to make them, indexed by age bracket.
A. The majority of US adults who make resolutions related to health and exercise also make
resolutions in multiple additional categories.
B. Among all US adults, people become less likely to make New Year’s resolutions as they
age, regardless of the type of resolution.
C. Resolution makers between the ages of 18 and 29 are more likely to make resolutions
about health and exercise than resolution makers between the ages of 30 and 49 are.
D. Resolution makers between the ages of 50 and 64 are more likely to make resolutions
related to personal relationships and less likely to make resolutions related to finances than
resolution makers between the ages of 30 and 49 are.

11.
Which quotation from Richard II most effectively illustrates the claim?
Richard II is a play from the 1590s by William Shakespeare. Although King Richard has been
vanquished by his cousin Henry Bolingbroke, he intimates that he is not entirely ready to
show subservience to his cousin, saying, ______
A. “Am I both priest and clerk? Well then, amen. / God save the King! although I be not he; /
And yet, amen, if heaven do think him me.”
B. “I have no name, no title,— / No, not that name was given me at the font,— / But ’tis
usurp’d:— Alack the heavy day, / That I have worn so many winters out, / And know not now
what name to call myself!”
C. “Still my griefs are mine. / You may my glories and my state depose, / But not my griefs;
still am I king of those.”
D. “Alack, why am I sent for to a king, / Before I have shook off the regal thoughts /
Wherewith I reign’d? I hardly yet have learn’d / To insinuate, flatter, bow, and bend my knee.”

12.
Which quotation from a literary scholar would most directly support the claim in the
underlined portion of the text?
Scholars cite Men of Maize, the 1949 novel by Guatemalan author Miguel Ángel Asturias, as
a foundational text of magical realism, the Latin American style of fiction in which
antirealistic plot devices—often borrowed from the spiritual and narrative traditions of
Indigenous and colonial societies in the Americas—are deployed in an otherwise realistic
mode of representation typical of the modern novel. This style has exerted a decisive
influence on authors in the United States, including Susan Power, whose 1994 novel The
Grass Dancer resembles classic magical realist novels in its juxtaposition of literary realism
with long-established cultural traditions—namely, those of the Dakota people of the northern
plains.
A. “The cultural traditions of the Dakota people of the northern plains, which figure so
prominently in the magical realist tradition of Latin America, permit realistic as well as
antirealistic scenarios—much as The Grass Dancer does.”
B. “Although much of The Grass Dancer conforms to the conventions of realistic fiction,
Susan Power also incorporates elements drawn from Dakota cultural traditions that
transcend and expose the limitations of realism.”
C. “Even though The Grass Dancer alternates between realistic and antirealistic modes of
representation, the influence of Dakota cultural traditions remains constant throughout the
novel.”
D. “Much of the interest of The Grass Dancer derives from the productive tension between
its competing influences—namely, Dakota cultural traditions and the magical realism of Latin
America.”

13.
Which choice most logically completes the text?
While mammals collectively exhibit the highest ratio of brain size to body size among
vertebrates, a team led by paleontologist Ornella Bertrand demonstrates that for ten million
years following the extinction of dinosaurs, that ratio in fact shrank for mammals as they
evolved to fill newly vacated ecological niches and their bodies increased in size more
rapidly than their brains. Competition for resources tends to favor intelligence and thus
large, complex brains, but during this period, the abundance of resources relative to
mammalian population numbers likely moderated competition and facilitated an increase in
body size. Bertrand and her team reason that as population numbers swelled, competition
intensified, creating conditions that ______
A. favored an evolutionary increase in brain size relative to body size among mammals.
B. restricted resources so drastically that mammals struggled to secure enough food to
maintain large brain sizes.
C. encouraged mammals with large brain sizes to adapt to a range of ecological niches.
D. heightened the advantage that large body size conferred on mammals in certain
ecological niches.

14.
Which choice most logically completes the text?
Duckweed is a small freshwater plant that is often exposed to zinc pollution. Sofia Vámos
and colleagues collected samples of four duckweed ecotypes (genetically and
geographically distinct populations within a species), along with water from each ecotype’s
habitat. Hypothesizing that each ecotype is adapted to its local conditions in ways that
bolster its growth and resistance to pollutants, the researchers grew each ecotype in all four
water samples and with three levels of zinc (none, low, high). (The researchers did not
replicate local differences in light or temperature.) They found that the ecotypes grew
equally well in all four water samples and that adding zinc consistently enhanced growth,
regardless of concentration, suggesting that ______
A. there may not be significant differences in the water that each ecotype inhabits, but there
are significant differences in each ecotype’s resistance to zinc pollution.
B. if each ecotype is indeed locally adapted as the researchers hypothesized, those
adaptations are to other environmental conditions than the water each ecotype inhabits.
C. while the ecotypes are genetically and geographically distinct, those differences do not
represent adaptations to local environmental conditions.
D. although the researchers’ hypothesis does not appear to be supported, this may be
because the levels of zinc exposure the plants in the experiment received did not match their
exposure in their natural environments.

15.
Which choice completes the text so that it conforms to the conventions of Standard English?
Enacted in 1991, Latvia’s 4,917-word constitution, in contrast to Chile’s, which was enacted
in 1980 and contains a far greater number (25,821) of words, ______ as the 4th shortest in
the world. Such data are studied by constitutional scholars like Dominic J. Nardi, who can
use them to draw broader conclusions.
A. ranks
B. have ranked
C. rank
D. are ranking

16.
Which choice completes the text so that it conforms to the conventions of Standard English?
Astronomers Annie and Edward Maunder meticulously studied historical records of dark
areas on the sun’s surface known as sunspots. Their work in the late 1800s led to the
identification of a period from 1645 to 1715—now known as the Maunder ______ sunspots
were notably scarce, a phenomenon that solar physicists continue to investigate.
A. Minimum—when
B. Minimum when
C. Minimum: when
D. Minimum, when
17.
Which choice completes the text so that it conforms to the conventions of Standard English?
To British musician Jacob Collier, substituting the II chord for the bvii chord—its opposite in
pitch and tone—adds expression to improvisation without creating dissonance. This
conceptualization of harmonic opposites did not originate with ______ in 1985, the idea was
first articulated in Swiss musicologist Ernst Levy’s posthumously published book A Theory of
Harmony.
A. Collier, though
B. Collier, though;
C. Collier, though,
D. Collier; though,

18.
Which choice completes the text so that it conforms to the conventions of Standard English?
The statement “all tarantulas are venomous” is scientific because it could be proved false by
a single observation to the contrary, according to Karl Popper. Popper’s theory ______ that
scientific hypotheses must be refutable, termed the criterion of falsifiability, rejects the
confirmationist position that uses verifiability as the standard for scientific hypotheses.
A. dictated
B. was dictating
C. dictating
D. dictates

19.
Which choice completes the text so that it conforms to the conventions of Standard English?
Novelist and playwright Mary Russell Mitford joined with 55 other prominent British writers in
1837 to petition the US Congress for greater copyright protections. This cadre of renowned
______ that American publishers’ appropriation of their work caused, in the words of the
petition, “deep and extensive injuries...on their reputation and property,” helped sow the
seeds for the International Copyright Act of 1891.
A. authors asserted
B. authors, asserting
C. authors, had asserted
D. authors were asserting

20.
Which choice completes the text with the most logical transition?
As anthropologist Cristina Grasseni explains, many artisanal cheeses in Italy, such as
Provolone Valpadana from Trentino-Alto Adige and Ragusano from Sicily, are highly valued
for their regional authenticity; ______ they are prized for being made using local ingredients
and methods typical of their respective geographic regions.
A. that is,
B. still,
C. rather,
D. then,

21.
Which choice completes the text with the most logical transition?
The early Australian railroad system of the 1800s was famously uncoordinated. Trains on the
broad gauge Victorian Goldfields Railway line in Victoria couldn’t travel on the Hotham Valley
Railway in Western Australia, which used narrow gauge tracks, without performing time-
consuming conversions. ______ historians refer to this complicated system as the “mixed
gauge muddle.”
A. Rather,
B. Hence,
C. For example,
D. Likewise,

22.
Which choice completes the text with the most logical transition?
When ordering the branches of the Yukon River system, cartographers tend to begin with
the riverway’s lowest point, the Yukon River. ______ hydrologists begin at the top of the river
system, with the Iditarod River and other tributaries fed by the riverway’s source, Alaska’s
Llewellyn Glacier.
A. In a similar way,
B. By contrast,
C. For example,
D. In other words,

23.
Which choice completes the text with the most logical transition?
Charles Demuth’s 1931 painting Chimney and Water Tower is a classic Precisionist work. The
Precisionists strove for cold, machine-like perfection, with crisp lines, geometric shapes, and
smooth, brushstroke-free surfaces. ______ Precisionist works often feature skyscrapers,
bridges, and factories, highlighting these angular structures’ engineered symmetry.
A. However,
B. That said,
C. Accordingly,
D. In the end,

24.
Which choice completes the text with the most logical transition?
As volcanologists like Tamsin Mather are apt to make clear, not all volcanoes are the same.
Ischia in Italy, for example, is a complex volcano, a mixed landform consisting of related
volcanic centers and their associated lava flows and pyroclastic rock. Mount Vsevidof in
Alaska, ______ is a stratovolcano, a conical volcano built up by many layers of hardened lava
and tephra.
A. in any case,
B. in contrast,
C. in fact,
D. in conclusion,

25.
The student wants to provide a historical overview of the Shackleton expedition. Which
choice most effectively uses relevant information from the notes to accomplish this goal?
While researching a topic, a student has taken the following notes:
1914: British explorer Ernest Shackleton and a small crew embarked on an expedition
to Antarctica.
1915: Shackleton’s ship Endurance became stuck in ice before eventually breaking
apart and sinking.
1916: After more harrowing sea-ice adventures, the entire crew was rescued.
1959: Historian Alfred Lansing wrote a book called Endurance: Shackleton’s Incredible
Voyage.
2001: Filmmaker George Butler released a documentary called The Endurance:
Shackleton’s Legendary Antarctic Expedition.
 2022: The wreckage of Endurance was discovered at the bottom of Antarctica’s
Weddell Sea.
A. Alfred Lansing wrote about the history of Shackleton’s 1914–16 expedition in the book
Endurance: Shackleton’s Incredible Voyage (1959); years later, in 2001, George Butler
released a documentary about the expedition.
B. In 1914, the Shackleton expedition sailed to Antarctica, where, in 1916, they rescued the
crew of a ship that had sunk, Endurance (the wreckage of which was discovered in 2022).
C. Leaving in 1914 for Antarctica, Shackleton and his crew underwent many harrowing sea-
ice adventures, including losing their ship in 1915, before being rescued in 1916.
D. Shackleton’s expedition has inspired a 1959 book, a 2001 film, and a 2022 discovery.

26.
The student wants to support Browner’s claim about Louis Ballard’s compositions. Which
choice most effectively uses relevant information from the notes to accomplish this goal?
While researching a topic, a student has taken the following notes:
Louis Ballard was a classical composer and citizen of the Quapaw Tribe.
Ballard’s composition Desert Trilogy was nominated for the Pulitzer Prize in music in
1971.
His composition Cacéga Ayuwípi incorporates Hopi notched sticks, a traditional Native
instrument.
Ethnomusicologist Tara Browner claims that Ballard’s compositions rely on elements
originating within Native musical traditions.
A. Classical composer Louis Ballard, who wrote Cacéga Ayuwípi, was nominated for the
Pulitzer Prize in music in 1971.
B. Browner claims that Louis Ballard’s compositions, one of which was nominated for the
Pulitzer Prize, rely on elements originating within Native musical traditions.
C. According to Browner, composer Louis Ballard, who wrote Desert Trilogy, relies on
elements with origins in Native musical traditions.
D. Browner posits that Louis Ballard’s compositions rely on elements originating within
Native musical traditions; Cacéga Ayuwípi affirms this assertion, incorporating Hopi notched
sticks.
27.
The student wants to make and support a claim regarding the applicability of the farm-size
transition hypothesis to Thailand. Which choice most effectively uses relevant information
from the notes to accomplish this goal?
While researching a topic, a student has taken the following notes:
The farm-size transition hypothesis predicts that economic pressures associated with
modernization result in smaller farms amalgamating into larger-scale commercial
farms.
Masters et al. (2013): The average farm size in Asia “already has or will soon begin to
rise.”
Promkhambut et al. (2023) argue that small rice farms in Thailand have adopted
modern farming methods without a significant scaling-up of farm size.
Promkhambut et al.: “The persistence of [small] rice farms [in Thailand] does not
represent a ‘failure’ to modernize...or a ‘truncated’ transition—it is a response to
modernization.”
A. Although the farm-size transition hypothesis may be applicable to some countries in Asia,
it is inconsistent with the development of rice farming in Thailand.
B. Taken together, the studies by Masters et al. and Promkhambut et al. suggest that rice
farms in Thailand have responded to the economic pressures associated with modernization
by expanding in size.
C. Masters et al. report that the average farm size “already has or will soon begin to rise” in
Asia, a finding that is consistent with the farm-size transition hypothesis.
D. The predicted shift to large-scale commercial farming may not hold true for rice farms in
Thailand, where, according to Promkhambut et al., rice farms have remained small as they’ve
modernized.