1

Text 1

For decades, bluegrass musicians have debated whether their genre should exclude influences from mainstream genres such as rock. Many insist that bluegrass is defined by its adherence to the folk music of the US South, out of which bluegrass emerged. Such “purists,” as they are known, regard the recordings of Bill Monroe, which established the bluegrass sound in the 1940s, as a standard against which the genre should still be measured.

Text 2

Bluegrass isn’t simply an extension of folk traditions into the era of recorded music. In reality, Bill Monroe created the bluegrass sound in the 1940s by combining Southern folk music with commercial genres that had arisen only a few decades before, such as jazz and the blues. Since bluegrass has always been a mixed genre, contemporary bluegrass musicians should not be forbidden from incorporating into it influences from rock and other mainstream genres.

Based on the texts, how would the author of Text 2 most likely regard the perspective of bluegrass purists, as described in Text 1?

A) As inconsistent, since bluegrass purists themselves enjoy other musical genres

B) As unrealistic, since bluegrass purists have no way of enforcing their musical preferences

C) As shortsighted, because bluegrass could enlarge its audience by including influences from mainstream genres

D) As illogical, because the purists overlook crucial aspects of how the bluegrass sound first originated.

2

Text 1

Ecologists have long wondered how thousands of microscopic phytoplankton species can live together near ocean surfaces competing for the same resources. According to conventional wisdom, one species should emerge after outcompeting the rest. So why do so many species remain? Ecologists’ many efforts to explain this phenomenon still haven’t uncovered a satisfactory explanation.

Text 2

Ecologist Michael Behrenfeld and colleagues have connected phytoplankton’s diversity to their microscopic size. Because these organisms are so tiny, they are spaced relatively far apart from each other in ocean water and, moreover, experience that water as a relatively dense substance. This in turn makes it hard for them to move around and interact with one another. Therefore, says Behrenfeld’s team, direct competition among phytoplankton probably happens much less than previously thought.

[red]* Based on the texts, how would Behrenfeld and colleagues (Text 2) most likely respond to the “conventional wisdom” discussed in Text 1?*

A) By asserting that it fails to recognize that routine replenishment of ocean nutrients prevents competition between phytoplankton species

B) By arguing that it is based on a misconception about phytoplankton species competing with one another

C) By suggesting that their own findings help clarify how phytoplankton species are able to compete with larger organisms

D) By recommending that more ecologists focus their research on how competition among phytoplankton species is increased with water density

3

Text 1

Public policy researcher Anthony Fowler studied the history of elections in Australia, a country that requires citizens to vote. Fowler argues that requiring citizens to vote leads to a significant increase in voters who would otherwise not have the time or motivation to vote. Thus, election results in countries that require citizens to vote better reflect the preferences of the country as a whole.

Text 2

Governments in democratic countries function better when more people vote. However, forcing people to vote may have negative consequences. Shane P. Singh and Jason Roy studied what happens when a country requires its citizens to vote. They found that when people feel forced to vote, they tend to spend less time looking for information about their choices when voting. As a result, votes from these voters may not reflect their actual preferences.

Based on the texts, how would Singh and Roy (Text 2) most likely respond to the research discussed in Text 1?

A) Only countries of a certain population size should implement mandatory voting.

B) People who are forced to vote are likely to become politically engaged in other ways, such as volunteering or running for office.

C) Requiring people to vote does not necessarily lead to election outcomes that better represent the preferences of the country as a whole.

D) Countries that require voting must also make the process of voting easier for their citizens.

4

Text 1

Italian painters in the 1500s rarely depicted themselves in their work. Even more rare were self-portrait paintings that portrayed the artist as a painter. At the time, painting was not yet respected as a profession, so painters mostly chose to emphasize other qualities in their self-portraits, like their intellect or social status. In the city of Bologna, the first artist to depict themself painting was a man named Annibale Carracci. A painting of his from around 1585 shows Carracci in front of an easel holding a palette.

Text 2

In their self-portraits, Bolognese artists typically avoided referring to the act of painting until the mid-1600s. However, Lavinia Fontana’s 1577 painting, Self-Portrait at the Keyboard, stands out as the earliest example of such a work by an artist from Bologna. Although the artist is depicted playing music, in the background, one can spot a painting easel by a window.

Based on the texts, how would the author of Text 2 most likely respond to the underlined claim in Text 1?

A) Self-Portrait at the Keyboard was painted earlier than Carracci’s painting and also refers to the artist’s craft

B) The depiction of Fontana in Self-Portrait at the Keyboard was intended to underscore the artist’s creativity.

C) Fontana likely inspired the reference to an easel and palette in Carracci’s painting.

D) Carracci and Fontana were among the most well-respected painters in Bologna at the time.

5

Text 1

The live music festival business is growing in event size and genre variety. With so many consumer options, organizers are finding ways to cement festival attendance as a special experience worth sharing. This phenomenon is linked to the growing “experiential economy,” where many find it gratifying to purchase lived experiences. To ensure a profitable event, venues need to consider the overall consumer experience, not just the band lineup.

Text 2

Music festival appearances are becoming a more important part of musicians’ careers. One factor in this shift is the rising use of streaming services that allow access to huge numbers of songs for a monthly fee, subsequently reducing sales of full-length albums. With this shift in consumer behavior, musicians are increasingly dependent on revenue from live performances.

Based on the texts, both authors would most likely agree with which statement?

A) Consumers are more interested in paying subscription fees to stream music than in attending music festivals in person. 

B) Changing consumer behaviors are leading to changes in music-related businesses.

C)  Consumers’ growing interest in purchasing experiences is mostly confined to the music industry. 

D) The rising consumer demand for live music festivals also generates higher demand for music streaming platforms.

6

Text 1

Some animal species, like the leopard, can be found in many kinds of areas. On the other hand, tropical mountain bird species tend to be limited in the types of spaces they can call home. This is because many mountain bird species are only able to survive at very specific elevations. Over time, these species have likely become used to living at a specific temperature. Therefore, these species struggle to survive at elevations that are warmer or colder than they are used to.

Text 2

A new study reviewed observations of nearly 3,000 bird species to understand why tropical mountain bird species live at specific elevations. They noted that when a mountain bird species was found in an area with many other bird species, it tended to inhabit much smaller geographic areas. It is thus likely that competition for resources with other species, not temperature, limits where these birds can live.

Based on the texts, both authors would most likely agree with which statement?

A) Tropical mountain bird species are restricted in where they can live.

B) Scientists have better tools to observe tropical mountain birds than they did in the past.

C) Little is known about how tropical mountain birds build their nests.

D) Tropical mountain bird species that live at high elevations tend to be genetically similar.

7

Text 1

Dominique Potvin and colleagues captured five Australian magpies (Gymnorhina tibicen) to test a new design for attaching tracking devices to birds. As the researchers fitted each magpie with a tracker attached by a small harness, they noticed some magpies without trackers pecking at another magpie’s tracker until it broke off. The researchers suggest that this behavior could be evidence of magpies attempting to help another magpie without benefiting themselves.

Text 2

It can be tempting to think that animals are deliberately providing help when we see them removing trackers and other equipment from one another, especially when a species is known to exhibit other cooperative behaviors. At the same time, it can be difficult to exclude the possibility that individuals are simply interested in the equipment because of its novelty, curiously pawing or pecking at it until it detaches.

Based on the texts, how would the author of Text 2 most likely respond to the researchers’ perspective in Text 1 on the behavior of the magpies without trackers?

A) That behavior might have been due to the novelty of the magpies’ captive setting rather than to the novelty of the tracker.

B) That behavior likely indicates that the magpies were deliberately attempting to benefit themselves by obtaining the tracker.

C) That behavior may not be evidence of selflessness in Gymnorhina tibicen because not all the captured magpies demonstrated it.

D) That behavior might be adequately explained without suggesting that the magpies were attempting to assist the other magpie.

8

Text 1

A team led by Bernardo Strassburg has found that rewilding farmland (returning the land to its natural state) could help preserve biodiversity and offset carbon emissions. The amount of farmland that would need to be restored, they found, is remarkably low. Rewilding a mere 15% of the world’s current farmland would prevent 60% of expected species extinctions and help absorb nearly 299 gigatons of carbon dioxide—a clear win in the fight against the biodiversity and climate crises.

Text 2

While Strassburg’s team’s findings certainly offer encouraging insight into the potential benefits of rewilding, it’s important to consider potential effects on global food supplies. The researchers suggest that to compensate for the loss of food-producing land, remaining farmland would need to produce even more food. Thus, policies focused on rewilding farmland must also address strategies for higher-yield farming.

Which choice best describes a difference in how the author of Text 1 and the author of Text 2 view Strassburg’s team’s study?

A) The author of Text 2 believes that the results described by Strassburg’s team are achievable in the near future, whereas the author of Text 1 argues that they likely aren’t.

B) The author of Text 2 claims that the percentage of farmland identified by Strassburg’s team is too low for rewilding to achieve meaningful results, whereas the author of Text 1 thinks the percentage is sufficient.

C) The author of Text 2 approaches the study’s findings with some caution, whereas the author of Text 1 is optimistic about the reported potential environmental benefits.

D) The author of Text 2 focuses on rewilding’s effect on carbon emissions, whereas the author of Text 1 focuses on its effect on biodiversity

9

Text 1

Although food writing is one of the most widely read genres in the United States, literary scholars have long neglected it. And within this genre, cookbooks attract the least scholarly attention of all, regardless of how well written they may be. This is especially true of works dedicated to regional US cuisines, whose complexity and historical significance are often overlooked.

Text 2

With her 1976 cookbook The Taste of Country Cooking, Edna Lewis popularized the refined Southern cooking she had grown up with in Freetown, an all-Black community in Virginia. She also set a new standard for cookbook writing: the recipes and memoir passages interspersing them are written in prose more elegant than that of most novels. Yet despite its inarguable value as a piece of writing, Lewis’s masterpiece has received almost no attention from literary scholars.

Based on the two texts, how would the author of Text 1 most likely regard the situation presented in the underlined sentence in Text 2?

A) As typical, because scholars are dismissive of literary works that achieve popularity with the general public

B) As unsurprising, because scholars tend to overlook the literary value of food writing in general and of regional cookbooks in particular

C) As justifiable, because Lewis incorporated memoir into The Taste of Country Cooking, thus undermining its status as a cookbook

D) As inevitable, because The Taste of Country Cooking was marketed to readers of food writing and not to readers of other genres

10

Text 1

Most scientists agree that the moon was likely formed after a collision between Earth and a large planet named Theia. This collision likely created a huge debris field, made up of material from both Earth and Theia. Based on models of this event, scientists believe that the moon was formed from this debris over the course of thousands of years.

Text 2

Researchers from NASA’s Ames Research Center used a computer to model how the moon could have formed. Although simulations of the moon’s formation have been done in the past, the team from NASA ran simulations that were much more detailed. They found that the formation of the moon was likely not a slow process that took many years. Instead, it’s probable that the moon’s formation happened immediately after impact, taking just a few hours.

Which choice best describes a difference in how the author of Text 1 and the author of Text 2 view the evidence for the formation of the moon?

A) The author of Text 1 argues that the formation of the moon occurred much earlier than the author of Text 2 argues.

B) The author of Text 1 suggests there is more evidence confirming the existence of Theia than the author of Text 2 suggests.

C) The author of Text 1 claims that the moon’s surface is more similar to Earth’s surface than the author of Text 2 claims.

D) The author of Text 1 believes that the moon formed more slowly than the author of Text 2 believes.