Question:
Most of what has been written about Thurgood Marshall, a former United States Supreme Court justice who served from 1967 to 1991, has just focused on his judicial record and on the ideological content of his earlier achievements as a lawyer pursuing civil rights issues in the courts. But when Marshall's career is viewed from a technical perspective, his work with the NAACP (National Association for the Advancement of Colored People) reveals a strategic and methodological legacy to the field of public interest law. Though the NAACP, under Marshall's direction, was not the first legal organization in the U.S. to be driven by a political and social agenda, he and the NAACP developed innovations that forever changed the landscape of public interest law: during the 1940s and 1950s, in their campaign against state-sanctioned racial segregation, Marshall and the NAACP, instead of simply pursuing cases as the opportunity arose, set up a predetermined legal campaign that was meticulously crafted and carefully coordinated. One aspect of this campaign, the test case strategy, involved sponsoring litigation of tactically chosen cases at the trial court level with careful evaluation of the precedential nuances and potential impact of each decision. This allowed Marshall to try out different approaches and discover which was the best to be used. An essential element in the success of this tactic was the explicit recognition that in a public interest legal campaign, choosing the right plaintiff can mean the difference between success and failure. Marshall carefully selected cases with sympathetic litigants, whose public appeal, credibility, and commitment to the NAACP's goals were unsurpassed. In addition, Marshall used sociological and psychological statistics—presented in expert testimony, for example, about the psychological impact of enforced segregation—as a means of transforming constitutional law by persuading the courts that certain discriminatory laws produced public harms in violation of constitutional principles. This tactic, while often effective, has been criticized by some legal scholars as a pragmatic attempt to give judges nonlegal material with which to fill gaps in their justifications for decisions where the purely legal principles appear inconclusive. Since the time of Marshall's work with the NAACP, the number of public interest law firms in the U.S. has grown substantially, and they have widely adopted his combination of strategies for litigation, devoting them to various public purposes. These strategies have been used, for example, in consumer advocacy campaigns and, more recently, by politically conservative public interest lawyers seeking to achieve, through litigation, changes in the law that they have not been able to accomplish in the legislature. If we focus on the particular content of Marshall's goals and successes, it might seem surprising that his work has influenced the quest for such divergent political objectives, but the techniques that he honed— originally considered to be a radical departure from accepted conventions—have become the norm for U.S. public interest litigation today.
Question: Which one of the following pairs of tactics used by an environmental-advocacy public interest law firm is most closely analogous to the strategies that Marshall utilized during his work with the NAACP?
 A. a decision to pursue a pollution case based on its potential legal implications for a large class of related cases; and testimony by a noted medical authority whose data support the claim that the pollution in question causes widespread medical problems
 B. acceptance of a pollution case based on the practical urgency of its expected impact on the environment if a ruling in favor of the plaintiff is rendered; and assignment of the case to the most widely known members of the firm
 C. preference for pursuing a series of cases that are to be tried in courts having a record of decisions that are favorable to environmental interests; and taking these cases to judges who strictly uphold constitutional principles
 D. acceptance of a pollution damage case based primarily on the potential plaintiff's needs; and careful orchestration of pretrial publicity designed to acquaint the public with the relevant issues
 E. thorough and painstaking research of precedents relating to a current pollution case; and consultations with lawyers for the defense regarding a pretrial settlement
Answer:

Choices:
- A
- B
- C
- D
- E

Most of what has been written about Thurgood Marshall, a former United States Supreme Court justice who served from 1967 to 1991, has just focused on his judicial record and on the ideological content of his earlier achievements as a lawyer pursuing civil rights issues in the courts. But when Marshall's career is viewed from a technical perspective, his work with the NAACP (National Association for the Advancement of Colored People) reveals a strategic and methodological legacy to the field of public interest law. Though the NAACP, under Marshall's direction, was not the first legal organization in the U.S. to be driven by a political and social agenda, he and the NAACP developed innovations that forever changed the landscape of public interest law: during the 1940s and 1950s, in their campaign against state-sanctioned racial segregation, Marshall and the NAACP, instead of simply pursuing cases as the opportunity arose, set up a predetermined legal campaign that was meticulously crafted and carefully coordinated. One aspect of this campaign, the test case strategy, involved sponsoring litigation of tactically chosen cases at the trial court level with careful evaluation of the precedential nuances and potential impact of each decision. This allowed Marshall to try out different approaches and discover which was the best to be used. An essential element in the success of this tactic was the explicit recognition that in a public interest legal campaign, choosing the right plaintiff can mean the difference between success and failure. Marshall carefully selected cases with sympathetic litigants, whose public appeal, credibility, and commitment to the NAACP's goals were unsurpassed. In addition, Marshall used sociological and psychological statistics—presented in expert testimony, for example, about the psychological impact of enforced segregation—as a means of transforming constitutional law by persuading the courts that certain discriminatory laws produced public harms in violation of constitutional principles. This tactic, while often effective, has been criticized by some legal scholars as a pragmatic attempt to give judges nonlegal material with which to fill gaps in their justifications for decisions where the purely legal principles appear inconclusive. Since the time of Marshall's work with the NAACP, the number of public interest law firms in the U.S. has grown substantially, and they have widely adopted his combination of strategies for litigation, devoting them to various public purposes. These strategies have been used, for example, in consumer advocacy campaigns and, more recently, by politically conservative public interest lawyers seeking to achieve, through litigation, changes in the law that they have not been able to accomplish in the legislature. If we focus on the particular content of Marshall's goals and successes, it might seem surprising that his work has influenced the quest for such divergent political objectives, but the techniques that he honed— originally considered to be a radical departure from accepted conventions—have become the norm for U.S. public interest litigation today.
Question: Which one of the following pairs of tactics used by an environmental-advocacy public interest law firm is most closely analogous to the strategies that Marshall utilized during his work with the NAACP?
 A. a decision to pursue a pollution case based on its potential legal implications for a large class of related cases; and testimony by a noted medical authority whose data support the claim that the pollution in question causes widespread medical problems
 B. acceptance of a pollution case based on the practical urgency of its expected impact on the environment if a ruling in favor of the plaintiff is rendered; and assignment of the case to the most widely known members of the firm
 C. preference for pursuing a series of cases that are to be tried in courts having a record of decisions that are favorable to environmental interests; and taking these cases to judges who strictly uphold constitutional principles
 D. acceptance of a pollution damage case based primarily on the potential plaintiff's needs; and careful orchestration of pretrial publicity designed to acquaint the public with the relevant issues
 E. thorough and painstaking research of precedents relating to a current pollution case; and consultations with lawyers for the defense regarding a pretrial settlement
Answer: A


Question:
Hundreds of clay tablets marked in cuneiform have been found in excavations of the Sumerian city of Uruk (in present-day Iraq). Though the tablets date from roughly 3000 B.C., the writing on them uses relatively few pictographs; instead, numerous abstract symbols are used. The sign for "sheep," for example, is not an image of a sheep, but rather a circled cross, while the sign for "metal" is a crescent with five lines. Because of its early date, this seemingly sudden appearance of such abstract writing has long puzzled researchers. At the same time, among prepottery clay artifacts found at archaeological sites along the Jordan and nearby rivers are thousands of small, hand-modeled tokens of fired clay, some dating to before 4000 B.C. Often ignored by archaeologists-some concluded without evidence that they were amulets or game pieces-the tokens are identified by Denise Schmandt-Besserat in her book Before Writing (1992) as overlooked predecessors to the written word. The earliest of the tokens were simple in form-small cones, spheres, and pyramids-and they were often inscribed. In 1966, a hollow tablet containing several of these tokens was discovered, and more than 100 additional tablets, which are now recognized as sealed envelopes of clay, have since been found. Later envelopes are also inscribed with impressions of tokens in the outer clay, signaling exactly what each envelope contained. Noting that these inscriptions are clearly traceable to later, known inscriptions of farm products, Schmandt-Besserat theorizes that the envelopes contained official records of villagers' contributions to temple-based grain and livestock pools. After 4000 B.C., hundreds of new token forms developed, as a rise in industry boosted the token system. Many forms are figurative, such as bowls or jars with handles, suggesting that villagers' crafts were becoming more diversified and sophisticated. The token system, essentially a system of three-dimensional nouns, was replaced in about 3 1 00 B.C.by a system of marks on clay tablets. A few centuries later, this latter system was to display the first use of numerals, where simple marks coded the concepts of one, two, and so forth. The eventual evolution of this system into mature writing, Schmandt-Besserat suggests, can be seen in the following example: At first it took two ovoid tokens to record two jars of oil. A little later, it took two markings on a clay tablet to achieve this-one mark, using the outline of the old token, to record the customary unit measure for oil, the jarful, and a second mark to convey the numeral: two oil jars. Eventually, it took three signs on the tablet, one for the numeral 2, one for the standard jarful, and a new symbol that denoted oil itself. With three such signs, an abstract and flexible written form had arrived.
Question: With which one of the following statements regarding the sign for "sheep" (line 6) would the author of the passage be most likely to agree?
 A. It could have been replaced without loss of significance by any other sign that was not already being used for something else.
 B. The sign gets its meaning in a radically different way from the way in which the cuneiform sign for "metal" gets its meaning.
 C. The way in which it represent s it s meaning resulted from the fact that sheep are an agricultural commodity rather than a product of human industry.
 D. The way in which it represent s it s meaning was not the subj ect of scientific scrutiny prior to that given it by Schmandt-Besserat.
 E. The abstract nature of the sign reveals a great deal ab out the political life of the people who used the language expressed by uniform writing.
Answer:

Choices:
- A
- B
- C
- D
- E

Hundreds of clay tablets marked in cuneiform have been found in excavations of the Sumerian city of Uruk (in present-day Iraq). Though the tablets date from roughly 3000 B.C., the writing on them uses relatively few pictographs; instead, numerous abstract symbols are used. The sign for "sheep," for example, is not an image of a sheep, but rather a circled cross, while the sign for "metal" is a crescent with five lines. Because of its early date, this seemingly sudden appearance of such abstract writing has long puzzled researchers. At the same time, among prepottery clay artifacts found at archaeological sites along the Jordan and nearby rivers are thousands of small, hand-modeled tokens of fired clay, some dating to before 4000 B.C. Often ignored by archaeologists-some concluded without evidence that they were amulets or game pieces-the tokens are identified by Denise Schmandt-Besserat in her book Before Writing (1992) as overlooked predecessors to the written word. The earliest of the tokens were simple in form-small cones, spheres, and pyramids-and they were often inscribed. In 1966, a hollow tablet containing several of these tokens was discovered, and more than 100 additional tablets, which are now recognized as sealed envelopes of clay, have since been found. Later envelopes are also inscribed with impressions of tokens in the outer clay, signaling exactly what each envelope contained. Noting that these inscriptions are clearly traceable to later, known inscriptions of farm products, Schmandt-Besserat theorizes that the envelopes contained official records of villagers' contributions to temple-based grain and livestock pools. After 4000 B.C., hundreds of new token forms developed, as a rise in industry boosted the token system. Many forms are figurative, such as bowls or jars with handles, suggesting that villagers' crafts were becoming more diversified and sophisticated. The token system, essentially a system of three-dimensional nouns, was replaced in about 3 1 00 B.C.by a system of marks on clay tablets. A few centuries later, this latter system was to display the first use of numerals, where simple marks coded the concepts of one, two, and so forth. The eventual evolution of this system into mature writing, Schmandt-Besserat suggests, can be seen in the following example: At first it took two ovoid tokens to record two jars of oil. A little later, it took two markings on a clay tablet to achieve this-one mark, using the outline of the old token, to record the customary unit measure for oil, the jarful, and a second mark to convey the numeral: two oil jars. Eventually, it took three signs on the tablet, one for the numeral 2, one for the standard jarful, and a new symbol that denoted oil itself. With three such signs, an abstract and flexible written form had arrived.
Question: With which one of the following statements regarding the sign for "sheep" (line 6) would the author of the passage be most likely to agree?
 A. It could have been replaced without loss of significance by any other sign that was not already being used for something else.
 B. The sign gets its meaning in a radically different way from the way in which the cuneiform sign for "metal" gets its meaning.
 C. The way in which it represent s it s meaning resulted from the fact that sheep are an agricultural commodity rather than a product of human industry.
 D. The way in which it represent s it s meaning was not the subj ect of scientific scrutiny prior to that given it by Schmandt-Besserat.
 E. The abstract nature of the sign reveals a great deal ab out the political life of the people who used the language expressed by uniform writing.
Answer: A


Question:
The painter Roy Lichtenstein helped to define pop art—the movement that incorporated commonplace objects and commercial-art techniques into paintings— by paraphrasing the style of comic books in his work. His merger of a popular genre with the forms and intentions of fine art generated a complex result: while poking fun at the pretensions of the art world, Lichtenstein's work also managed to convey a seriousness of theme that enabled it to transcend mere parody. That Lichtenstein's images were fine art was at first difficult to see, because, with their word balloons and highly stylized figures, they looked like nothing more than the comic book panels from which they were copied. Standard art history holds that pop art emerged as an impersonal alternative to the histrionics of abstract expressionism, a movement in which painters conveyed their private attitudes and emotions using nonrepresentational techniques. The truth is that by the time pop art first appeared in the early 1960s, abstract expressionism had already lost much of its force. Pop art painters weren't quarreling with the powerful early abstract expressionist work of the late 1940s but with a second generation of abstract expressionists whose work seemed airy, high-minded, and overly lyrical. Pop art paintings were full of simple black lines and large areas of primary color. Lichtenstein's work was part of a general rebellion against the fading emotional power of abstract expressionism, rather than an aloof attempt to ignore it. But if rebellion against previous art by means of the careful imitation of a popular genre were all that characterized Lichtenstein's work, it would possess only the reflective power that parodies have in relation to their subjects. Beneath its cartoonish methods, his work displayed an impulse toward realism, an urge to say that what was missing from contemporary painting was the depiction of contemporary life. The stilted romances and war stories portrayed in the comic books on which he based his canvases, the stylized automobiles, hot dogs, and table lamps that appeared in his pictures, were reflections of the culture Lichtenstein inhabited. But, in contrast to some pop art, Lichtenstein's work exuded not a jaded cynicism about consumer culture, but a kind of deliberate naivete, intended as a response to the excess of sophistication he observed not only in the later abstract expressionists but in some other pop artists. With the comics— typically the domain of youth and innocence—as his reference point, a nostalgia fills his paintings that gives them, for all their surface bravado, an inner sweetness. His persistent use of comic-art conventions demonstrates a faith in reconciliation, not only between cartoons and fine art, but between parody and true feeling.
Question: Which one of the following most accurately states the main point of the passage?
 A. Lichtenstein's use of comic book elements in his paintings, considered simply a parodic reaction to the high-mindedness of later abstract expressionism, is also an attempt to re-create the emotionally powerful work of earlier abstract expressionists.
 B. Lichtenstein's use of comic book elements is not solely a parodic reaction to the high-mindedness of later abstract expressionism but also demonstrates an attempt to achieve realistic and nostalgic effects simultaneously in his paintings.
 C. Lichtenstein's use of comic book elements obscures the emotional complexity contained in his paintings, a situation that has prevented his work from being recognized as fine art in the expressionist tradition.
 D. Lichtenstein's use of comic book elements appears to mark his paintings as parodic reactions to the whole of abstract expressionism when they are instead a rebellion against the high-mindedness of the later abstract expressionists.
 E. Lichtenstein's use of comic book elements in his paintings, though a response to the excessive sophistication of the art world, is itself highly sophisticated in that it manages to reconcile pop art and fine art.
Answer:

Choices:
- A
- B
- C
- D
- E

The painter Roy Lichtenstein helped to define pop art—the movement that incorporated commonplace objects and commercial-art techniques into paintings— by paraphrasing the style of comic books in his work. His merger of a popular genre with the forms and intentions of fine art generated a complex result: while poking fun at the pretensions of the art world, Lichtenstein's work also managed to convey a seriousness of theme that enabled it to transcend mere parody. That Lichtenstein's images were fine art was at first difficult to see, because, with their word balloons and highly stylized figures, they looked like nothing more than the comic book panels from which they were copied. Standard art history holds that pop art emerged as an impersonal alternative to the histrionics of abstract expressionism, a movement in which painters conveyed their private attitudes and emotions using nonrepresentational techniques. The truth is that by the time pop art first appeared in the early 1960s, abstract expressionism had already lost much of its force. Pop art painters weren't quarreling with the powerful early abstract expressionist work of the late 1940s but with a second generation of abstract expressionists whose work seemed airy, high-minded, and overly lyrical. Pop art paintings were full of simple black lines and large areas of primary color. Lichtenstein's work was part of a general rebellion against the fading emotional power of abstract expressionism, rather than an aloof attempt to ignore it. But if rebellion against previous art by means of the careful imitation of a popular genre were all that characterized Lichtenstein's work, it would possess only the reflective power that parodies have in relation to their subjects. Beneath its cartoonish methods, his work displayed an impulse toward realism, an urge to say that what was missing from contemporary painting was the depiction of contemporary life. The stilted romances and war stories portrayed in the comic books on which he based his canvases, the stylized automobiles, hot dogs, and table lamps that appeared in his pictures, were reflections of the culture Lichtenstein inhabited. But, in contrast to some pop art, Lichtenstein's work exuded not a jaded cynicism about consumer culture, but a kind of deliberate naivete, intended as a response to the excess of sophistication he observed not only in the later abstract expressionists but in some other pop artists. With the comics— typically the domain of youth and innocence—as his reference point, a nostalgia fills his paintings that gives them, for all their surface bravado, an inner sweetness. His persistent use of comic-art conventions demonstrates a faith in reconciliation, not only between cartoons and fine art, but between parody and true feeling.
Question: Which one of the following most accurately states the main point of the passage?
 A. Lichtenstein's use of comic book elements in his paintings, considered simply a parodic reaction to the high-mindedness of later abstract expressionism, is also an attempt to re-create the emotionally powerful work of earlier abstract expressionists.
 B. Lichtenstein's use of comic book elements is not solely a parodic reaction to the high-mindedness of later abstract expressionism but also demonstrates an attempt to achieve realistic and nostalgic effects simultaneously in his paintings.
 C. Lichtenstein's use of comic book elements obscures the emotional complexity contained in his paintings, a situation that has prevented his work from being recognized as fine art in the expressionist tradition.
 D. Lichtenstein's use of comic book elements appears to mark his paintings as parodic reactions to the whole of abstract expressionism when they are instead a rebellion against the high-mindedness of the later abstract expressionists.
 E. Lichtenstein's use of comic book elements in his paintings, though a response to the excessive sophistication of the art world, is itself highly sophisticated in that it manages to reconcile pop art and fine art.
Answer: B


Question:
To understand John Rawls's theory of justice, one first needs to grasp what he was reacting against. The dominant approach in pre-Rawls political philosophy was utilitarianism, which emphasized maximizing the fulfillment of peopled preferences. At first sight, utilitarianism seems plausible-what else should we do but try to achieve the most satisfaction possible for the greatest number of people?-but the theory has some odd consequences. Suppose executing an innocent person will appease a mob, and that doing so will therefore increase total satisfaction. Incredibly, a utilitarian would have to endorse the execution. Rawls accordingly complains that, in the utilitarian view, there is no reason "why the violation of the liberty of a few might not be made right by the greater good shared by many." If we reject utilitarianism and its view about the aim of the good life, how can we know what justice requires? Rawls offers an ingenious answer. He asserts that even if people do not agree on the aim of the good life, they can accept a fair procedure for settling what the principles of justice should be. This is key to Rawls's theory: Whatever arises from a fair procedure is just. But what is a fair procedure? Rawls again has a clever approach, beginning with his famous veil of ignorance. Suppose five children have to divide a cake among themselves. One child cuts the cake but does not know who will get which shares. The child is likely to divide the cake into equal shares to avoid the possibility of receiving the smallest share, an arrangement that the others will also admit to be fair. By denying the child information that would bias the result, a fair outcome can be achieved. Rawls generalizes the point of this example of the veil of ignorance. His thought experiment features a situation, which he calls the original position, in which people are self-interested but do not know their own station in life, abilities, tastes, or even gender. Under the limits of this ignorance, individuals motivated by self-interest endeavor to arrive at a solution in which they will not lose, because nobody loses. The result will be a just arrangement. Rawls thinks that people, regardless of their plan of life,want certain "primary goods." These include rights and liberties, powers and opportunities, and income and wealth. Without these primary goods, people cannot accomplish their goals, whatever they may be. Hence, any individual in the original position will agree that everyone should get at least a minimum amount of these primary goods. Unfortunately, this is an inherently redistributionist idea, since the primary goods are not natural properties of human beings. If someone lacks a primary good, it must be provided, at the expense of others if necessary.
Question: Which one of the following would, if true, most call into question the claim in lines 49-51 of the passage?
 A. Most people value the fulfillment of their own preferences over the fulfillment of the preferences of strangers.
 B. It is impossible in practice for people to be ignorant of their stations in life, abilities, and tastes.
 C. Some people would be willing to risk acomplete loss of one primary good for the chance of obtaining an enormous amount of another primary good.
 D. Few people believe that they would be satisfied with only a minimum amount of primary goods.
 E. People tend to overestimate the resources available for distribution and to underestimate their own needs.
Answer:

Choices:
- A
- B
- C
- D
- E

To understand John Rawls's theory of justice, one first needs to grasp what he was reacting against. The dominant approach in pre-Rawls political philosophy was utilitarianism, which emphasized maximizing the fulfillment of peopled preferences. At first sight, utilitarianism seems plausible-what else should we do but try to achieve the most satisfaction possible for the greatest number of people?-but the theory has some odd consequences. Suppose executing an innocent person will appease a mob, and that doing so will therefore increase total satisfaction. Incredibly, a utilitarian would have to endorse the execution. Rawls accordingly complains that, in the utilitarian view, there is no reason "why the violation of the liberty of a few might not be made right by the greater good shared by many." If we reject utilitarianism and its view about the aim of the good life, how can we know what justice requires? Rawls offers an ingenious answer. He asserts that even if people do not agree on the aim of the good life, they can accept a fair procedure for settling what the principles of justice should be. This is key to Rawls's theory: Whatever arises from a fair procedure is just. But what is a fair procedure? Rawls again has a clever approach, beginning with his famous veil of ignorance. Suppose five children have to divide a cake among themselves. One child cuts the cake but does not know who will get which shares. The child is likely to divide the cake into equal shares to avoid the possibility of receiving the smallest share, an arrangement that the others will also admit to be fair. By denying the child information that would bias the result, a fair outcome can be achieved. Rawls generalizes the point of this example of the veil of ignorance. His thought experiment features a situation, which he calls the original position, in which people are self-interested but do not know their own station in life, abilities, tastes, or even gender. Under the limits of this ignorance, individuals motivated by self-interest endeavor to arrive at a solution in which they will not lose, because nobody loses. The result will be a just arrangement. Rawls thinks that people, regardless of their plan of life,want certain "primary goods." These include rights and liberties, powers and opportunities, and income and wealth. Without these primary goods, people cannot accomplish their goals, whatever they may be. Hence, any individual in the original position will agree that everyone should get at least a minimum amount of these primary goods. Unfortunately, this is an inherently redistributionist idea, since the primary goods are not natural properties of human beings. If someone lacks a primary good, it must be provided, at the expense of others if necessary.
Question: Which one of the following would, if true, most call into question the claim in lines 49-51 of the passage?
 A. Most people value the fulfillment of their own preferences over the fulfillment of the preferences of strangers.
 B. It is impossible in practice for people to be ignorant of their stations in life, abilities, and tastes.
 C. Some people would be willing to risk acomplete loss of one primary good for the chance of obtaining an enormous amount of another primary good.
 D. Few people believe that they would be satisfied with only a minimum amount of primary goods.
 E. People tend to overestimate the resources available for distribution and to underestimate their own needs.
Answer: C


Question:
Music and literature, rivals among the arts, have not coexisted without intruding on each other's terrain. Ever since what we think of as "literature" developed out of the sounds of spoken, sung, and chanted art, writing bas aspired to the condition of music, in which fonn contnbutes significantly to content. Nowhere is this truer than in the African American tradition, whose music is often considered its greatest artistic achievement and one of the greatest contributions to North American art. But while many African American writers have used musicians and music as theme and metaphor in their writing, none had attempted to draw upon a musical genre as the structuring principle for an entire novel until Toni Morrison did so in her 1992 novel Jazz, a novel set in the Harlem section of New York City in 1926 . In Jazz, the connection to music is found not only in the novel's plot but, more strikingly, in the way in which the story is told. The narration slips easily from the third-person omniscience of the narrator's disembodied voice-which, though sensitive and sympathetic, claims no particular identity, gender, or immersion in specific social circumstances-to the first-person lyricism of key characters. But throughout these shifts, the narrator is both generous with the characters' voices and protective of his or her mastery over the narrative as a whole. On the one hand, the central characters are given the responsibility of relating their parts of the overarching story, but on the other hand, their sections are set offby quotation maIks, reminders that the narrator is allowing them to speak.. In this way, the narrative is analogous in structure to the playing of a jazz hand which intertwines its ensemble sound with the individuality of emhedded solo perfunnances. In jazz, composer and conductor Duke Ellington was the first to construct his compositions with his individual musicians and their unique "voices" in mind. Yet no matter how lengthy his musicians' improvisations, no matter how bold or inventive their solos might be, they always performed within the undeniable logic of the composer's frame-they always, in other words, performed as ifwith quotation marks ar01md their improvisations and solos. It is this same effect that Toni Morrison has achieved in Jazz, a literary rendering of an art of composition that Duke Ellington perfected around the time in which Jazz is set. In this novel, Morrison has found a way, paradoxically, to create the sense of an ensemble of characters improvising within the fixed scope of a carefully constructed collective narration. By simulating the style of a genius of music while exhibiting Morrison's own linguistic virtuosity, Jazz serves to redefine the very possibilities of narrative point of view.
Question: Which one of the following most accurately states the main point of the passage?
 A. In Jazz, Morrison has realized a significant artistic achievement in creating the first African American work of fiction whose plot, themes, and setting are all drawn from the world of jazz.
 B. Morrison's striking description of a musical ensemble perfurmance containing solo improvisations constitutes an important artistic innovation and makes Jazz an important model for other writers.
 C. Although many African American writers have used music as a central metaphor in their works, Morrison's 1992 novel is unique and innovative for using jazz as its central metaphor.
 D. Building on the works of many African American writers and musical composers, Morrison has over the years developed an innovative jazzlike style of narration, which she used especially effectively in the novel Jazz.
 E. In Jazz, Morrison has succeeded in creating an original and effective narrative strategy that is a literary analogne of Duke Ellington's style of musical composition.
Answer:

Choices:
- A
- B
- C
- D
- E

Music and literature, rivals among the arts, have not coexisted without intruding on each other's terrain. Ever since what we think of as "literature" developed out of the sounds of spoken, sung, and chanted art, writing bas aspired to the condition of music, in which fonn contnbutes significantly to content. Nowhere is this truer than in the African American tradition, whose music is often considered its greatest artistic achievement and one of the greatest contributions to North American art. But while many African American writers have used musicians and music as theme and metaphor in their writing, none had attempted to draw upon a musical genre as the structuring principle for an entire novel until Toni Morrison did so in her 1992 novel Jazz, a novel set in the Harlem section of New York City in 1926 . In Jazz, the connection to music is found not only in the novel's plot but, more strikingly, in the way in which the story is told. The narration slips easily from the third-person omniscience of the narrator's disembodied voice-which, though sensitive and sympathetic, claims no particular identity, gender, or immersion in specific social circumstances-to the first-person lyricism of key characters. But throughout these shifts, the narrator is both generous with the characters' voices and protective of his or her mastery over the narrative as a whole. On the one hand, the central characters are given the responsibility of relating their parts of the overarching story, but on the other hand, their sections are set offby quotation maIks, reminders that the narrator is allowing them to speak.. In this way, the narrative is analogous in structure to the playing of a jazz hand which intertwines its ensemble sound with the individuality of emhedded solo perfunnances. In jazz, composer and conductor Duke Ellington was the first to construct his compositions with his individual musicians and their unique "voices" in mind. Yet no matter how lengthy his musicians' improvisations, no matter how bold or inventive their solos might be, they always performed within the undeniable logic of the composer's frame-they always, in other words, performed as ifwith quotation marks ar01md their improvisations and solos. It is this same effect that Toni Morrison has achieved in Jazz, a literary rendering of an art of composition that Duke Ellington perfected around the time in which Jazz is set. In this novel, Morrison has found a way, paradoxically, to create the sense of an ensemble of characters improvising within the fixed scope of a carefully constructed collective narration. By simulating the style of a genius of music while exhibiting Morrison's own linguistic virtuosity, Jazz serves to redefine the very possibilities of narrative point of view.
Question: Which one of the following most accurately states the main point of the passage?
 A. In Jazz, Morrison has realized a significant artistic achievement in creating the first African American work of fiction whose plot, themes, and setting are all drawn from the world of jazz.
 B. Morrison's striking description of a musical ensemble perfurmance containing solo improvisations constitutes an important artistic innovation and makes Jazz an important model for other writers.
 C. Although many African American writers have used music as a central metaphor in their works, Morrison's 1992 novel is unique and innovative for using jazz as its central metaphor.
 D. Building on the works of many African American writers and musical composers, Morrison has over the years developed an innovative jazzlike style of narration, which she used especially effectively in the novel Jazz.
 E. In Jazz, Morrison has succeeded in creating an original and effective narrative strategy that is a literary analogne of Duke Ellington's style of musical composition.
Answer: E


Question:
Passage A Insider-trading law makes it a crime to make stock transactions, or help others make stock transactions, based on information you have ahead of the general public because of your special position within a company. However, trading based on information you have that everyone else doesn't-isn't this part of the very definition of a functioning stock market? The entire field of stock brokering is based on people gaining knowledge that others don't have and then using it to profit themselves or their clients. If you analyze a stock, decide that it is overvalued, and sell it, you are taking advantage of knowledge that many others don?t have. That doesn't make you a criminal; it means you've done your homework. Stock markets work best when all the relevant information about a company is spread as widely as possible, as quickly as possible. Stock prices represent a constantly shifting amalgamation of everyone's information about and evaluations of a company's value. It helps when those who have accurate information about changing circumstances are permitted to act so that stock prices reflect them. Someone selling a stock because they know something will happen soon that will lower the stock's value helps spread the knowledge that the price ought to be dropping. Such actions help ensure that stock prices do reflect a more accurate assessment of all the relevant facts. That's good for everyone in the stock market. When contemplating insider-trading law, it helps to consider a far more widespread practice: "insider nontrading"-stock sales or purchases that would have been made, but aren't because of inside knowledge. This is certainly happening every day, and rightfully so. No one would think to lock someone up for it. Passage B One of the basic principles of the stock market is transparency. In a transparent market, information that influences trading decisions is available to all participants at the same time. Success in the market can then be gained only by skill in analyzing the information and making good investing decisions. In a transparent stock market-everyone has the same chance of making a good investment, and success is based on individual merit and skill. In insider-trading situations, some people make investment decisions based on information that other people don't have. People who don't have access to the inside information can make similarly informed investment decisions. That unfairly compromises the market: people with inside information can make informed trade decisions far before everyone else, making it difficult or impossible for other people to earn money in the stock market. This, in turn, causes a loss of investor confidence and could ultimately destroy the market. People invest in the stock market because they believe they can make money. The whole point of capital investments is to make good investing decisions and make money over time. If investors believe they can't make money, they won't invest. Undermining investor confidence would thus deny companies access to the funds they need to grow and be successful, and it could ultimately lead to widespread financial repercussions.
Question: The authors would be most likely to agree that
 A. insider trading tends to undermine investor confidence in the stock market
 B. all information should be available to all market participants at the same time
 C. it is appropriate for investors to seek to gain an advantage by superior stock analysis
 D. insider nontrading should be regulated to the same extent as insider trading
 E. insider trading is the best means for disseminating information possessed by insiders
Answer:

Choices:
- A
- B
- C
- D
- E

Passage A Insider-trading law makes it a crime to make stock transactions, or help others make stock transactions, based on information you have ahead of the general public because of your special position within a company. However, trading based on information you have that everyone else doesn't-isn't this part of the very definition of a functioning stock market? The entire field of stock brokering is based on people gaining knowledge that others don't have and then using it to profit themselves or their clients. If you analyze a stock, decide that it is overvalued, and sell it, you are taking advantage of knowledge that many others don?t have. That doesn't make you a criminal; it means you've done your homework. Stock markets work best when all the relevant information about a company is spread as widely as possible, as quickly as possible. Stock prices represent a constantly shifting amalgamation of everyone's information about and evaluations of a company's value. It helps when those who have accurate information about changing circumstances are permitted to act so that stock prices reflect them. Someone selling a stock because they know something will happen soon that will lower the stock's value helps spread the knowledge that the price ought to be dropping. Such actions help ensure that stock prices do reflect a more accurate assessment of all the relevant facts. That's good for everyone in the stock market. When contemplating insider-trading law, it helps to consider a far more widespread practice: "insider nontrading"-stock sales or purchases that would have been made, but aren't because of inside knowledge. This is certainly happening every day, and rightfully so. No one would think to lock someone up for it. Passage B One of the basic principles of the stock market is transparency. In a transparent market, information that influences trading decisions is available to all participants at the same time. Success in the market can then be gained only by skill in analyzing the information and making good investing decisions. In a transparent stock market-everyone has the same chance of making a good investment, and success is based on individual merit and skill. In insider-trading situations, some people make investment decisions based on information that other people don't have. People who don't have access to the inside information can make similarly informed investment decisions. That unfairly compromises the market: people with inside information can make informed trade decisions far before everyone else, making it difficult or impossible for other people to earn money in the stock market. This, in turn, causes a loss of investor confidence and could ultimately destroy the market. People invest in the stock market because they believe they can make money. The whole point of capital investments is to make good investing decisions and make money over time. If investors believe they can't make money, they won't invest. Undermining investor confidence would thus deny companies access to the funds they need to grow and be successful, and it could ultimately lead to widespread financial repercussions.
Question: The authors would be most likely to agree that
 A. insider trading tends to undermine investor confidence in the stock market
 B. all information should be available to all market participants at the same time
 C. it is appropriate for investors to seek to gain an advantage by superior stock analysis
 D. insider nontrading should be regulated to the same extent as insider trading
 E. insider trading is the best means for disseminating information possessed by insiders
Answer: C


Question:
Passage A Research concerning happiness and wealth reveals a paradox: at any one time richer people report higher levels of happiness than poorer people in the same society report, and yet over time advanced societies have not grown happier as they have grown richer. Apparently, people are comparing their income with some norm, and that norm must be rising along with actual income. Two phenomena—habituation and rivalry—push up the norm. When our living standards increase, we love it initially but then we adjust and it makes little difference. For example, if we ask people with different incomes what income they consider sufficient, the "required income" correlates strongly with their actual income: a rise in actual income causes a roughly equivalent rise in required income. We can also look at reported happiness over time. Job satisfaction depends little on the absolute level of wages but rises if wages rapidly increase. We do not have the same experience with other aspects of our lives. We do not foresee how we adjust to material possessions, so we overinvest in acquiring them, at the expense of leisure. Now consider the phenomenon of rivalry. In a study conducted by Solnick and Hemenway, people were asked to choose between two options, with all prices held constant: A. You earn $50,000 a year while everyone else earns $25,000; B. You earn $100,000 a year while others make $200,000. The majority chose the first. They were happy to be poorer, provided their relative position improved. And indeed, how people compare to their "reference group" һthose most like them—is crucial for happiness. In East Germany, for example, living standards have soared since 1990, but the level of happiness has plummeted because people now compare themselves with West Germans, rather than with people in other Soviet bloc countries. Passage B Does the Solnick and Hemenway study mean that we care most about one-upmanship? Perhaps out of our primeval past comes the urge to demonstrate our superiority in order to help ensure mating prospects, keeping our genetic lines going. Still programmed like this, we get unexplainable pleasure from having a bigger house than our neighbors. This theory may sound good and is commonly heard, but it is not the explanation best supported by the evidence. Rather, the data show that earning more makes people happier because relative prosperity makes them feel that they are successful, that they have created value. If two people feel equally successful, they will be equally happy even if their incomes differ greatly. Of course, people who earn more generally view themselves as successful. But it is the success—not the money per se-that provides the happiness. We use material wealth to show not just that we are prosperous, but that we are prosperous because we create value. What scholars often portray as an ignoble tendency-wanting to have more than others- is really evidence of a desire to create value. Wanting to create value benefits society. It is a bonus that it also brings happiness.
Question: The author of passage B would be most likely to regard the conclusion that the Solnick and Hemenway study points to the existence of a "phenomenon of rivalry" (line 24) as
 A. ungenerous in its view of human nature and mistaken in its interpretation of the evidence
 B. flattering in its implications about human nature but only weakly supported by the available evidence
 C. plausible in its account of human nature but based largely upon ambiguous evidence
 D. unflattering in its implications about human nature but more or less valid in the conclusions drawn from the evidence
 E. accurate concerning human nature and strongly supported by the evidence
Answer:

Choices:
- A
- B
- C
- D
- E

Passage A Research concerning happiness and wealth reveals a paradox: at any one time richer people report higher levels of happiness than poorer people in the same society report, and yet over time advanced societies have not grown happier as they have grown richer. Apparently, people are comparing their income with some norm, and that norm must be rising along with actual income. Two phenomena—habituation and rivalry—push up the norm. When our living standards increase, we love it initially but then we adjust and it makes little difference. For example, if we ask people with different incomes what income they consider sufficient, the "required income" correlates strongly with their actual income: a rise in actual income causes a roughly equivalent rise in required income. We can also look at reported happiness over time. Job satisfaction depends little on the absolute level of wages but rises if wages rapidly increase. We do not have the same experience with other aspects of our lives. We do not foresee how we adjust to material possessions, so we overinvest in acquiring them, at the expense of leisure. Now consider the phenomenon of rivalry. In a study conducted by Solnick and Hemenway, people were asked to choose between two options, with all prices held constant: A. You earn $50,000 a year while everyone else earns $25,000; B. You earn $100,000 a year while others make $200,000. The majority chose the first. They were happy to be poorer, provided their relative position improved. And indeed, how people compare to their "reference group" һthose most like them—is crucial for happiness. In East Germany, for example, living standards have soared since 1990, but the level of happiness has plummeted because people now compare themselves with West Germans, rather than with people in other Soviet bloc countries. Passage B Does the Solnick and Hemenway study mean that we care most about one-upmanship? Perhaps out of our primeval past comes the urge to demonstrate our superiority in order to help ensure mating prospects, keeping our genetic lines going. Still programmed like this, we get unexplainable pleasure from having a bigger house than our neighbors. This theory may sound good and is commonly heard, but it is not the explanation best supported by the evidence. Rather, the data show that earning more makes people happier because relative prosperity makes them feel that they are successful, that they have created value. If two people feel equally successful, they will be equally happy even if their incomes differ greatly. Of course, people who earn more generally view themselves as successful. But it is the success—not the money per se-that provides the happiness. We use material wealth to show not just that we are prosperous, but that we are prosperous because we create value. What scholars often portray as an ignoble tendency-wanting to have more than others- is really evidence of a desire to create value. Wanting to create value benefits society. It is a bonus that it also brings happiness.
Question: The author of passage B would be most likely to regard the conclusion that the Solnick and Hemenway study points to the existence of a "phenomenon of rivalry" (line 24) as
 A. ungenerous in its view of human nature and mistaken in its interpretation of the evidence
 B. flattering in its implications about human nature but only weakly supported by the available evidence
 C. plausible in its account of human nature but based largely upon ambiguous evidence
 D. unflattering in its implications about human nature but more or less valid in the conclusions drawn from the evidence
 E. accurate concerning human nature and strongly supported by the evidence
Answer: A


Question:
Hundreds of clay tablets marked in cuneiform have been found in excavations of the Sumerian city of Uruk (in present-day Iraq). Though the tablets date from roughly 3000 B.C., the writing on them uses relatively few pictographs; instead, numerous abstract symbols are used. The sign for "sheep," for example, is not an image of a sheep, but rather a circled cross, while the sign for "metal" is a crescent with five lines. Because of its early date, this seemingly sudden appearance of such abstract writing has long puzzled researchers. At the same time, among prepottery clay artifacts found at archaeological sites along the Jordan and nearby rivers are thousands of small, hand-modeled tokens of fired clay, some dating to before 4000 B.C. Often ignored by archaeologists-some concluded without evidence that they were amulets or game pieces-the tokens are identified by Denise Schmandt-Besserat in her book Before Writing (1992) as overlooked predecessors to the written word. The earliest of the tokens were simple in form-small cones, spheres, and pyramids-and they were often inscribed. In 1966, a hollow tablet containing several of these tokens was discovered, and more than 100 additional tablets, which are now recognized as sealed envelopes of clay, have since been found. Later envelopes are also inscribed with impressions of tokens in the outer clay, signaling exactly what each envelope contained. Noting that these inscriptions are clearly traceable to later, known inscriptions of farm products, Schmandt-Besserat theorizes that the envelopes contained official records of villagers' contributions to temple-based grain and livestock pools. After 4000 B.C., hundreds of new token forms developed, as a rise in industry boosted the token system. Many forms are figurative, such as bowls or jars with handles, suggesting that villagers' crafts were becoming more diversified and sophisticated. The token system, essentially a system of three-dimensional nouns, was replaced in about 3 1 00 B.C.by a system of marks on clay tablets. A few centuries later, this latter system was to display the first use of numerals, where simple marks coded the concepts of one, two, and so forth. The eventual evolution of this system into mature writing, Schmandt-Besserat suggests, can be seen in the following example: At first it took two ovoid tokens to record two jars of oil. A little later, it took two markings on a clay tablet to achieve this-one mark, using the outline of the old token, to record the customary unit measure for oil, the jarful, and a second mark to convey the numeral: two oil jars. Eventually, it took three signs on the tablet, one for the numeral 2, one for the standard jarful, and a new symbol that denoted oil itself. With three such signs, an abstract and flexible written form had arrived.
Question: According to the passage, the token system
 A. was eventually abandoned because it was not capable of representing quantity and other abstractions
 B. came to designate a broad range of objects as the crafts of the people who used it became more diverse and sophisticated
 C. could be understood only because some tokens were inscribed with symbols known to represent agricultural products
 D. was originally thought by most archaeologists to have had a primarily religious function
 E. became physically unwieldy and cumbersome as it s users agricultural products became more diverse
Answer:

Choices:
- A
- B
- C
- D
- E

Hundreds of clay tablets marked in cuneiform have been found in excavations of the Sumerian city of Uruk (in present-day Iraq). Though the tablets date from roughly 3000 B.C., the writing on them uses relatively few pictographs; instead, numerous abstract symbols are used. The sign for "sheep," for example, is not an image of a sheep, but rather a circled cross, while the sign for "metal" is a crescent with five lines. Because of its early date, this seemingly sudden appearance of such abstract writing has long puzzled researchers. At the same time, among prepottery clay artifacts found at archaeological sites along the Jordan and nearby rivers are thousands of small, hand-modeled tokens of fired clay, some dating to before 4000 B.C. Often ignored by archaeologists-some concluded without evidence that they were amulets or game pieces-the tokens are identified by Denise Schmandt-Besserat in her book Before Writing (1992) as overlooked predecessors to the written word. The earliest of the tokens were simple in form-small cones, spheres, and pyramids-and they were often inscribed. In 1966, a hollow tablet containing several of these tokens was discovered, and more than 100 additional tablets, which are now recognized as sealed envelopes of clay, have since been found. Later envelopes are also inscribed with impressions of tokens in the outer clay, signaling exactly what each envelope contained. Noting that these inscriptions are clearly traceable to later, known inscriptions of farm products, Schmandt-Besserat theorizes that the envelopes contained official records of villagers' contributions to temple-based grain and livestock pools. After 4000 B.C., hundreds of new token forms developed, as a rise in industry boosted the token system. Many forms are figurative, such as bowls or jars with handles, suggesting that villagers' crafts were becoming more diversified and sophisticated. The token system, essentially a system of three-dimensional nouns, was replaced in about 3 1 00 B.C.by a system of marks on clay tablets. A few centuries later, this latter system was to display the first use of numerals, where simple marks coded the concepts of one, two, and so forth. The eventual evolution of this system into mature writing, Schmandt-Besserat suggests, can be seen in the following example: At first it took two ovoid tokens to record two jars of oil. A little later, it took two markings on a clay tablet to achieve this-one mark, using the outline of the old token, to record the customary unit measure for oil, the jarful, and a second mark to convey the numeral: two oil jars. Eventually, it took three signs on the tablet, one for the numeral 2, one for the standard jarful, and a new symbol that denoted oil itself. With three such signs, an abstract and flexible written form had arrived.
Question: According to the passage, the token system
 A. was eventually abandoned because it was not capable of representing quantity and other abstractions
 B. came to designate a broad range of objects as the crafts of the people who used it became more diverse and sophisticated
 C. could be understood only because some tokens were inscribed with symbols known to represent agricultural products
 D. was originally thought by most archaeologists to have had a primarily religious function
 E. became physically unwieldy and cumbersome as it s users agricultural products became more diverse
Answer: B


Question:
Passage A Insider-trading law makes it a crime to make stock transactions, or help others make stock transactions, based on information you have ahead of the general public because of your special position within a company. However, trading based on information you have that everyone else doesn't-isn't this part of the very definition of a functioning stock market? The entire field of stock brokering is based on people gaining knowledge that others don't have and then using it to profit themselves or their clients. If you analyze a stock, decide that it is overvalued, and sell it, you are taking advantage of knowledge that many others don?t have. That doesn't make you a criminal; it means you've done your homework. Stock markets work best when all the relevant information about a company is spread as widely as possible, as quickly as possible. Stock prices represent a constantly shifting amalgamation of everyone's information about and evaluations of a company's value. It helps when those who have accurate information about changing circumstances are permitted to act so that stock prices reflect them. Someone selling a stock because they know something will happen soon that will lower the stock's value helps spread the knowledge that the price ought to be dropping. Such actions help ensure that stock prices do reflect a more accurate assessment of all the relevant facts. That's good for everyone in the stock market. When contemplating insider-trading law, it helps to consider a far more widespread practice: "insider nontrading"-stock sales or purchases that would have been made, but aren't because of inside knowledge. This is certainly happening every day, and rightfully so. No one would think to lock someone up for it. Passage B One of the basic principles of the stock market is transparency. In a transparent market, information that influences trading decisions is available to all participants at the same time. Success in the market can then be gained only by skill in analyzing the information and making good investing decisions. In a transparent stock market-everyone has the same chance of making a good investment, and success is based on individual merit and skill. In insider-trading situations, some people make investment decisions based on information that other people don't have. People who don't have access to the inside information can make similarly informed investment decisions. That unfairly compromises the market: people with inside information can make informed trade decisions far before everyone else, making it difficult or impossible for other people to earn money in the stock market. This, in turn, causes a loss of investor confidence and could ultimately destroy the market. People invest in the stock market because they believe they can make money. The whole point of capital investments is to make good investing decisions and make money over time. If investors believe they can't make money, they won't invest. Undermining investor confidence would thus deny companies access to the funds they need to grow and be successful, and it could ultimately lead to widespread financial repercussions.
Question: The passages' references to the analysis of information about stocks (lines 11-14, lines 40-42) are related in which one of the following ways?
 A. Passage A presents it as unnecessary, since all relevant information is already reflected in stock prices, whereas passage B presents it as necessary for making sound investment decisions.
 B. Passage A uses it as an example of an activity that compensates for the market's lack of transparency, whereas passage B uses it as an example of an activity whose viability is conditional upon the transparency of the market.
 C. Passage A presents it as an activity that gives some investors an unfair advantage over others, whereas passage B presents it as an activity that increases the transparency of the market.
 D. Passage A presents it as comparable to the acquisition of inside information, whereas passage B contrasts it with the acquisition of inside information.
 E. Passage A treats it as an option available only to brokers and other stock-market professionals, whereas passage B treats it as an option available to ordinary investors as well.
Answer:

Choices:
- A
- B
- C
- D
- E

Passage A Insider-trading law makes it a crime to make stock transactions, or help others make stock transactions, based on information you have ahead of the general public because of your special position within a company. However, trading based on information you have that everyone else doesn't-isn't this part of the very definition of a functioning stock market? The entire field of stock brokering is based on people gaining knowledge that others don't have and then using it to profit themselves or their clients. If you analyze a stock, decide that it is overvalued, and sell it, you are taking advantage of knowledge that many others don?t have. That doesn't make you a criminal; it means you've done your homework. Stock markets work best when all the relevant information about a company is spread as widely as possible, as quickly as possible. Stock prices represent a constantly shifting amalgamation of everyone's information about and evaluations of a company's value. It helps when those who have accurate information about changing circumstances are permitted to act so that stock prices reflect them. Someone selling a stock because they know something will happen soon that will lower the stock's value helps spread the knowledge that the price ought to be dropping. Such actions help ensure that stock prices do reflect a more accurate assessment of all the relevant facts. That's good for everyone in the stock market. When contemplating insider-trading law, it helps to consider a far more widespread practice: "insider nontrading"-stock sales or purchases that would have been made, but aren't because of inside knowledge. This is certainly happening every day, and rightfully so. No one would think to lock someone up for it. Passage B One of the basic principles of the stock market is transparency. In a transparent market, information that influences trading decisions is available to all participants at the same time. Success in the market can then be gained only by skill in analyzing the information and making good investing decisions. In a transparent stock market-everyone has the same chance of making a good investment, and success is based on individual merit and skill. In insider-trading situations, some people make investment decisions based on information that other people don't have. People who don't have access to the inside information can make similarly informed investment decisions. That unfairly compromises the market: people with inside information can make informed trade decisions far before everyone else, making it difficult or impossible for other people to earn money in the stock market. This, in turn, causes a loss of investor confidence and could ultimately destroy the market. People invest in the stock market because they believe they can make money. The whole point of capital investments is to make good investing decisions and make money over time. If investors believe they can't make money, they won't invest. Undermining investor confidence would thus deny companies access to the funds they need to grow and be successful, and it could ultimately lead to widespread financial repercussions.
Question: The passages' references to the analysis of information about stocks (lines 11-14, lines 40-42) are related in which one of the following ways?
 A. Passage A presents it as unnecessary, since all relevant information is already reflected in stock prices, whereas passage B presents it as necessary for making sound investment decisions.
 B. Passage A uses it as an example of an activity that compensates for the market's lack of transparency, whereas passage B uses it as an example of an activity whose viability is conditional upon the transparency of the market.
 C. Passage A presents it as an activity that gives some investors an unfair advantage over others, whereas passage B presents it as an activity that increases the transparency of the market.
 D. Passage A presents it as comparable to the acquisition of inside information, whereas passage B contrasts it with the acquisition of inside information.
 E. Passage A treats it as an option available only to brokers and other stock-market professionals, whereas passage B treats it as an option available to ordinary investors as well.
Answer: D


Question:
Passage AEvolutionary psychology has taught us to examine human behavior from the standpoint of the theory of evolution—to explain a given type of human behavior by examining how it contributes to the reproductive success of individuals exhibiting the behavior, and thereby to the proliferation of the genetic material responsible for causing that behavior. From an evolutionary standpoint, the problem of altruism is a thorny one: what accounts for the evolution of behavior in which an individual expends energy or other valuable resources promoting the welfare of another individual? The answer probably lies in the psychological experiences of identification and empathy. Such experiences could have initially arisen in response to cues (like physical resemblance) that indicated the presence of shared genetic material in human ancestors. The psychological states provoked by these cues could have increased the chances of related individuals' receiving assistance, thereby enhancing the survival and replication of genes influencing the capacity for identification and empathy. This would account, for example, for a mother's rushing to help her injured child; genes promoting their own self-propagation may thus operate through instinctive actions that appear unselfish. Since human ancestors lived in small, kin-based groups, the application of altruistic mechanisms to the entire group would have promoted the propagation of the genes responsible for those mechanisms. Later, these mechanisms may have come to apply to humans who are not kin when communities grew larger. In this way, apparently altruistic mechanisms may have arisen within a genetically "selfish" system. Passage B Evolutionary psychology is a kind of conspiracy theory; that is, it explains behavior by imputing an interest (the proliferation of genes) that the agent of the behavior does not openly acknowledge, or indeed, is not even aware of. Thus, what seemed to be your unsurprising interest in your child's well-being turns out to be your genes' conspiracy to propagate themselves. Such arguments can appear persuasive on the face of it. According to some evolutionary psychologists, an interest in the proliferation of genes explains monogamous families in animals whose offspring mature slowly. Human offspring mature slowly; and, at least in numerical terms, our species favors monogamous families. Evolutionary psychologists take this as evidence that humans form monogamous families because of our interest in propagating our genes. Are they right? Maybe yes, maybe no; this kind of inference needs to be handled with great care. There are, most often, all sorts of interests that would explain any given behavior. What is needed to make it decisive that a particular interest explains a particular behavior is that the behavior would be reasonable only if one had that interest. But such cases are vanishingly rare: an interest in Y might explain doing X, but so too would an interest in doing X. A concern to propagate one's genes would explain promoting the welfare of one's children; but so too would an interest in the welfare of one's children. Not all of one's motives can be instrumental, after all; there must be some things that one cares for just for their own sakes.
Question: It can be inferred that the author of passage B would regard which one of the following as a mistaken assumption underlying arguments like that made in passage A?
 A. Most of the physical features characteristic of modern humans developed as the result of evolutionary pressures.
 B. Any action performed by an early human was necessarily orchestrated by that individual's genes to promote the genes' self-propagation.
 C. To explain a type of human behavior in evolutionary terms, it is sufficient to show that the behavior would have improved the reproductive success of early humans.
 D. Evolutionary psychology can be used to explain human behavior but not animal behavior, since animal behavior is driven largely by instinct.
 E. Most early human behaviors that significantly hindered reproductive success were eliminated by evolutionary competition.
Answer:

Choices:
- A
- B
- C
- D
- E

Passage AEvolutionary psychology has taught us to examine human behavior from the standpoint of the theory of evolution—to explain a given type of human behavior by examining how it contributes to the reproductive success of individuals exhibiting the behavior, and thereby to the proliferation of the genetic material responsible for causing that behavior. From an evolutionary standpoint, the problem of altruism is a thorny one: what accounts for the evolution of behavior in which an individual expends energy or other valuable resources promoting the welfare of another individual? The answer probably lies in the psychological experiences of identification and empathy. Such experiences could have initially arisen in response to cues (like physical resemblance) that indicated the presence of shared genetic material in human ancestors. The psychological states provoked by these cues could have increased the chances of related individuals' receiving assistance, thereby enhancing the survival and replication of genes influencing the capacity for identification and empathy. This would account, for example, for a mother's rushing to help her injured child; genes promoting their own self-propagation may thus operate through instinctive actions that appear unselfish. Since human ancestors lived in small, kin-based groups, the application of altruistic mechanisms to the entire group would have promoted the propagation of the genes responsible for those mechanisms. Later, these mechanisms may have come to apply to humans who are not kin when communities grew larger. In this way, apparently altruistic mechanisms may have arisen within a genetically "selfish" system. Passage B Evolutionary psychology is a kind of conspiracy theory; that is, it explains behavior by imputing an interest (the proliferation of genes) that the agent of the behavior does not openly acknowledge, or indeed, is not even aware of. Thus, what seemed to be your unsurprising interest in your child's well-being turns out to be your genes' conspiracy to propagate themselves. Such arguments can appear persuasive on the face of it. According to some evolutionary psychologists, an interest in the proliferation of genes explains monogamous families in animals whose offspring mature slowly. Human offspring mature slowly; and, at least in numerical terms, our species favors monogamous families. Evolutionary psychologists take this as evidence that humans form monogamous families because of our interest in propagating our genes. Are they right? Maybe yes, maybe no; this kind of inference needs to be handled with great care. There are, most often, all sorts of interests that would explain any given behavior. What is needed to make it decisive that a particular interest explains a particular behavior is that the behavior would be reasonable only if one had that interest. But such cases are vanishingly rare: an interest in Y might explain doing X, but so too would an interest in doing X. A concern to propagate one's genes would explain promoting the welfare of one's children; but so too would an interest in the welfare of one's children. Not all of one's motives can be instrumental, after all; there must be some things that one cares for just for their own sakes.
Question: It can be inferred that the author of passage B would regard which one of the following as a mistaken assumption underlying arguments like that made in passage A?
 A. Most of the physical features characteristic of modern humans developed as the result of evolutionary pressures.
 B. Any action performed by an early human was necessarily orchestrated by that individual's genes to promote the genes' self-propagation.
 C. To explain a type of human behavior in evolutionary terms, it is sufficient to show that the behavior would have improved the reproductive success of early humans.
 D. Evolutionary psychology can be used to explain human behavior but not animal behavior, since animal behavior is driven largely by instinct.
 E. Most early human behaviors that significantly hindered reproductive success were eliminated by evolutionary competition.
Answer: C


Question:
The corrido, a type of narrative folk song, comes from a region half in Mexico and half in the United States known as the Lower Rio Grande Border. Corridos, which flourished from about 1836 to the late 1930s, are part of a long-standing ballad tradition that has roots in eighteenth-century Spain. Sung in Spanish, corridos combine formal features of several different types of folk songs, but their narratives consistently deal with subject matter specific to the Border region. For example, "El Corrido de Kiansis" (c. 1870), the oldest corrido surviving in complete form, records the first cattle drives to Kansas in the late 1860s. A single important event is likely to have inspired several corrido variants, yet the different versions of any given story all partake of standard generic elements. When sung at social gatherings, corridos served to commemorate significant local happenings, but more importantly, their heavy reliance on familiar linguistic and thematic conventions served to affirm the cohesiveness of Border communities. Corridos take their name from the Spanish verb correr, meaning to run or to flow, for corridos tell their stories simply and swiftly, without embellishments. Figures of speech such as metaphors are generally rare in corridos, and when metaphors are used, they usually incorporate everyday images that are familiar to the songs' listeners. In the popular "El Corrido de Gregorio Cortez," for example, the hero Cortez, fighting off pursuers, uses the metaphor of a thunderstorm to boast that he has had harder fights than the one they gave him: "I have weathered thunderstorms; / This little mist doesn't bother me." Similar storm imagery is found in other corridos including "Kiansis," which tells of stampedes caused by thunderstorms during the Kansas cattle drives. Such imagery, highly conventional and readily recognizable to corrido listeners, reflects and strengthens the continuity of the corrido tradition. The corrido is composed not only of familiar images but also of certain ready-made lines that travel easily from one ballad to another. This is most evident in the corrido's formal closing verse, or despedida. The despedida of one variant of "Gregorio Cortez" is translated as follows: "Now with this I say farewell / In the shade of a cypress tree; / This is the end of the ballad / Of Don Gregorio Cortez." The first and third lines are a set convention. The second and fourth lines are variable, the fourth carrying the name of the corrido or expressing its subject, and the second varying according to exigencies of rhyme. In the despedida, perhaps the clearest marker of both the corrido's uniqueness and its generic continuity, the corrido's maker asserts that the task of relating an authentic Border tale has been accomplished.
Question: The passage most strongly suggests that the author would agree with which one of the following statements?
 A. In at least some cases, the dependence of corridos on ready-made lines hindered the efforts of corrido makers to use metaphor effectively.
 B. The corrido is unique among ballad forms because it uses language that is familiar mainly to local audiences.
 C. Much of the imagery used in corridos can also be identified in ballads from Spain.
 D. The reportorial capability of corridos was probably enhanced by their freedom from the constraints of rhymed ballad forms.
 E. A corrido without a surviving despedida would
Answer:

Choices:
- A
- B
- C
- D
- E

The corrido, a type of narrative folk song, comes from a region half in Mexico and half in the United States known as the Lower Rio Grande Border. Corridos, which flourished from about 1836 to the late 1930s, are part of a long-standing ballad tradition that has roots in eighteenth-century Spain. Sung in Spanish, corridos combine formal features of several different types of folk songs, but their narratives consistently deal with subject matter specific to the Border region. For example, "El Corrido de Kiansis" (c. 1870), the oldest corrido surviving in complete form, records the first cattle drives to Kansas in the late 1860s. A single important event is likely to have inspired several corrido variants, yet the different versions of any given story all partake of standard generic elements. When sung at social gatherings, corridos served to commemorate significant local happenings, but more importantly, their heavy reliance on familiar linguistic and thematic conventions served to affirm the cohesiveness of Border communities. Corridos take their name from the Spanish verb correr, meaning to run or to flow, for corridos tell their stories simply and swiftly, without embellishments. Figures of speech such as metaphors are generally rare in corridos, and when metaphors are used, they usually incorporate everyday images that are familiar to the songs' listeners. In the popular "El Corrido de Gregorio Cortez," for example, the hero Cortez, fighting off pursuers, uses the metaphor of a thunderstorm to boast that he has had harder fights than the one they gave him: "I have weathered thunderstorms; / This little mist doesn't bother me." Similar storm imagery is found in other corridos including "Kiansis," which tells of stampedes caused by thunderstorms during the Kansas cattle drives. Such imagery, highly conventional and readily recognizable to corrido listeners, reflects and strengthens the continuity of the corrido tradition. The corrido is composed not only of familiar images but also of certain ready-made lines that travel easily from one ballad to another. This is most evident in the corrido's formal closing verse, or despedida. The despedida of one variant of "Gregorio Cortez" is translated as follows: "Now with this I say farewell / In the shade of a cypress tree; / This is the end of the ballad / Of Don Gregorio Cortez." The first and third lines are a set convention. The second and fourth lines are variable, the fourth carrying the name of the corrido or expressing its subject, and the second varying according to exigencies of rhyme. In the despedida, perhaps the clearest marker of both the corrido's uniqueness and its generic continuity, the corrido's maker asserts that the task of relating an authentic Border tale has been accomplished.
Question: The passage most strongly suggests that the author would agree with which one of the following statements?
 A. In at least some cases, the dependence of corridos on ready-made lines hindered the efforts of corrido makers to use metaphor effectively.
 B. The corrido is unique among ballad forms because it uses language that is familiar mainly to local audiences.
 C. Much of the imagery used in corridos can also be identified in ballads from Spain.
 D. The reportorial capability of corridos was probably enhanced by their freedom from the constraints of rhymed ballad forms.
 E. A corrido without a surviving despedida would
Answer: E


Question:
Passage A Karl Popper's main contribution to the philosophy of science science concerns the power of negative evidence. The fundamental point is simple: No number of white swans, for example, can ever prove that all swans are white, but a single black swan disproves the hypothesis. Popper gives this logical asymmetry between positive and negative evidence hyperbolic application, maintaining that positive evidence has no value as evidence and that negative evidence is tantamount to disproof. Moreover, Popper takes the search for negative evidence to be at the heart of scientific research; that is, for Popper, scientific research involves not only generating bold theories, but also searching for evidence that would disprove them. Indeed, for him, a theory counts as scientific only if it makes predictions that are testable in this way. However, Popper's use of the logical asymmetry does not adequately capture the actual situation scientists face. If a theory deductively entails a false prediction, then the theory must be false as well. But a scientific theory rarely entails predictions on its own. When scientists actually derive a theory's predictions, they almost always need diverse additional "auxiliary" premises, which appeal to other theories, to the correct functioning of instrumentation, to the absence of disturbing forces, etc. When a prediction fails, logic indicates that at least one of the premises must be false, but it does not indicate which one. When an experiment does not work out as predicted, there is usually more than one possible explanation. Positive evidence is never conclusive. But negative evidence rarely is either. Passage B When the planet Uranus was discovered, astronomers attempted to predict its orbit. They based their predictions on Newton's laws and auxiliary assumptions about the mass of the sun and the masses, orbits, and velocities of other planets. One of the auxiliary assumptions was that no planets existed in the vicinity of Uranus. When the astronomers made their observations, they found that the orbit they had predicted for Uranus was incorrect. One possible explanation for the failure of their prediction was that Newton's laws were incorrect. Another was that there was an error in the auxiliary assumptions. The astronomers changed their assumptions about the existence of other planets, concluding that there must be another planet close enough to Uranus to produce the observed orbit. Not long afterward, scientists discovered the planet Neptune in the precise place it would have to be to bring their calculations into alignment with their observations Later astronomers, again using Newton's laws, predicted the orbit of Mercury. Once again, the predictions were not borne out. They hypothesized the existence of another planet in the vicinity, which they called Vulcan. However, Vulcan was never found, and some scientists began to think that perhaps Newton's laws were in error. Finally, when Einstein's general theory of relativity was introduced, astronomers discovered that calculations based on that theory and the old auxiliary assumptions predicted the observed orbit of Mercury, leading to the rejection of Newton's theory of gravity and to increased confidence in Einstein's theory.
Question: Which one of the following is mentioned in passage A and illustrated in passage B?
 A. repudiating an experimental result
 B. revising a theory
 C. disproving a theory
 D. predicting a planet's orbit
 E. theories that are not testable by experiment
Answer:

Choices:
- A
- B
- C
- D
- E

Passage A Karl Popper's main contribution to the philosophy of science science concerns the power of negative evidence. The fundamental point is simple: No number of white swans, for example, can ever prove that all swans are white, but a single black swan disproves the hypothesis. Popper gives this logical asymmetry between positive and negative evidence hyperbolic application, maintaining that positive evidence has no value as evidence and that negative evidence is tantamount to disproof. Moreover, Popper takes the search for negative evidence to be at the heart of scientific research; that is, for Popper, scientific research involves not only generating bold theories, but also searching for evidence that would disprove them. Indeed, for him, a theory counts as scientific only if it makes predictions that are testable in this way. However, Popper's use of the logical asymmetry does not adequately capture the actual situation scientists face. If a theory deductively entails a false prediction, then the theory must be false as well. But a scientific theory rarely entails predictions on its own. When scientists actually derive a theory's predictions, they almost always need diverse additional "auxiliary" premises, which appeal to other theories, to the correct functioning of instrumentation, to the absence of disturbing forces, etc. When a prediction fails, logic indicates that at least one of the premises must be false, but it does not indicate which one. When an experiment does not work out as predicted, there is usually more than one possible explanation. Positive evidence is never conclusive. But negative evidence rarely is either. Passage B When the planet Uranus was discovered, astronomers attempted to predict its orbit. They based their predictions on Newton's laws and auxiliary assumptions about the mass of the sun and the masses, orbits, and velocities of other planets. One of the auxiliary assumptions was that no planets existed in the vicinity of Uranus. When the astronomers made their observations, they found that the orbit they had predicted for Uranus was incorrect. One possible explanation for the failure of their prediction was that Newton's laws were incorrect. Another was that there was an error in the auxiliary assumptions. The astronomers changed their assumptions about the existence of other planets, concluding that there must be another planet close enough to Uranus to produce the observed orbit. Not long afterward, scientists discovered the planet Neptune in the precise place it would have to be to bring their calculations into alignment with their observations Later astronomers, again using Newton's laws, predicted the orbit of Mercury. Once again, the predictions were not borne out. They hypothesized the existence of another planet in the vicinity, which they called Vulcan. However, Vulcan was never found, and some scientists began to think that perhaps Newton's laws were in error. Finally, when Einstein's general theory of relativity was introduced, astronomers discovered that calculations based on that theory and the old auxiliary assumptions predicted the observed orbit of Mercury, leading to the rejection of Newton's theory of gravity and to increased confidence in Einstein's theory.
Question: Which one of the following is mentioned in passage A and illustrated in passage B?
 A. repudiating an experimental result
 B. revising a theory
 C. disproving a theory
 D. predicting a planet's orbit
 E. theories that are not testable by experiment
Answer: C


Question:
One of the more striking developments in modem North American dance was African American choreographer Katherine Dunham's introduction of a technique known as dance-isolation, in which one part of the body moves in one rhythm while other parts are kept stationary or are moved in different rhythms. The incorporation of this technique into North American and European choreography is relatively recent, although various forms of the technique have long been essential to traditional dances of certain African, Caribbean, and Pacific-island cultures. Dunham's success in bringing dance-isolation and other traditional techniques from those cultures into the mainstream of modern North American dance is due in no small part to her training in both anthropological research and choreography.As an anthropologist in the 1930s, Dunham was one of the pioneers in the field of dance ethnology. Previously, dance had been neglected as an area of social research, primarily because most social scientists gravitated toward areas likely to be recognized by their peers as befitting scientifically rigorous, and therefore legitimate, modes of inquiry. Moreover, no other social scientist at that time was sufficiently trained in dance to be able to understand dance techniques, while experts in dance were not trained in the methods of social research. Starting in 1935, Dunham conducted a series of research projects into traditional Caribbean dance forms, with special interest in their origins in African culture. Especially critical to her success was her approach to research, which diverged radically from the methodology that prevailed at the time. Colleagues in anthropology advised her not to become too closely involved in the dances she was observing, both because of the extreme physical demands of the dances, and because they subscribed to the long-standing view, now fortunately recognized as unrealistic, that effective data gathering can and must be conducted from a position of complete detachment. But because of her interest and her skill as a performer, she generally eschewed such caution and participated in the dances herself. Through prolonged immersion of this kind, Dunham was able not only to comprehend various dances as complex cultural practices, but also to learn the techniques well enough to teach them to others and incorporate them into new forms of ballet. Between 1937 and 1945, Dunham developed a research-to-performance method that she used to adapt Caribbean dance forms for use in theatrical performance, combining them with modern dance styles she learned in Chicago. The ballets she created in this fashion were among the first North American dances to rectify the exclusion of African American themes from the medium of modern dance. Her work was thus crucial in establishing African American dance as an art form in its own right, making possible future companies such as Arthur Mitchell's Dance Theater of Harlem.
Question: The passage suggests that the author would be most likely to agree with which one of the following statements about the colleagues mentioned in line 33?
 A. They were partly correct in recommending that Dunham change her methods of data collection, since injury sustained during fieldwork might have compromised her research.
 B. They were partly correct in advising Dunham to exercise initial caution in participating in the Caribbean dances, since her skill in performing them improved with experience.
 C. They were incorrect in advising Dunham to increase the degree of her detachment, since extensive personal investment in fieldwork generally enhances scientific rigor.
 D. They were incorrect in assuming that researchers in the social sciences are able to gather data in an entirely objective manner.
 E. They were incorrect in assuming that dance could be studied with the same degree of scientific rigor possible in other areas of ethnology.
Answer:

Choices:
- A
- B
- C
- D
- E

One of the more striking developments in modem North American dance was African American choreographer Katherine Dunham's introduction of a technique known as dance-isolation, in which one part of the body moves in one rhythm while other parts are kept stationary or are moved in different rhythms. The incorporation of this technique into North American and European choreography is relatively recent, although various forms of the technique have long been essential to traditional dances of certain African, Caribbean, and Pacific-island cultures. Dunham's success in bringing dance-isolation and other traditional techniques from those cultures into the mainstream of modern North American dance is due in no small part to her training in both anthropological research and choreography.As an anthropologist in the 1930s, Dunham was one of the pioneers in the field of dance ethnology. Previously, dance had been neglected as an area of social research, primarily because most social scientists gravitated toward areas likely to be recognized by their peers as befitting scientifically rigorous, and therefore legitimate, modes of inquiry. Moreover, no other social scientist at that time was sufficiently trained in dance to be able to understand dance techniques, while experts in dance were not trained in the methods of social research. Starting in 1935, Dunham conducted a series of research projects into traditional Caribbean dance forms, with special interest in their origins in African culture. Especially critical to her success was her approach to research, which diverged radically from the methodology that prevailed at the time. Colleagues in anthropology advised her not to become too closely involved in the dances she was observing, both because of the extreme physical demands of the dances, and because they subscribed to the long-standing view, now fortunately recognized as unrealistic, that effective data gathering can and must be conducted from a position of complete detachment. But because of her interest and her skill as a performer, she generally eschewed such caution and participated in the dances herself. Through prolonged immersion of this kind, Dunham was able not only to comprehend various dances as complex cultural practices, but also to learn the techniques well enough to teach them to others and incorporate them into new forms of ballet. Between 1937 and 1945, Dunham developed a research-to-performance method that she used to adapt Caribbean dance forms for use in theatrical performance, combining them with modern dance styles she learned in Chicago. The ballets she created in this fashion were among the first North American dances to rectify the exclusion of African American themes from the medium of modern dance. Her work was thus crucial in establishing African American dance as an art form in its own right, making possible future companies such as Arthur Mitchell's Dance Theater of Harlem.
Question: The passage suggests that the author would be most likely to agree with which one of the following statements about the colleagues mentioned in line 33?
 A. They were partly correct in recommending that Dunham change her methods of data collection, since injury sustained during fieldwork might have compromised her research.
 B. They were partly correct in advising Dunham to exercise initial caution in participating in the Caribbean dances, since her skill in performing them improved with experience.
 C. They were incorrect in advising Dunham to increase the degree of her detachment, since extensive personal investment in fieldwork generally enhances scientific rigor.
 D. They were incorrect in assuming that researchers in the social sciences are able to gather data in an entirely objective manner.
 E. They were incorrect in assuming that dance could be studied with the same degree of scientific rigor possible in other areas of ethnology.
Answer: D