While we can infer information about climate activity in Earth’s distant past from physical evidence, we of course cannot observe past climates directly. To study early Earth’s climate in action, we must____that climate using computer models that represent various climate conditions consistent with the physical evidence.

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

A) invent

B) simulate

C) preserve

D) exaggerate

Mônica Lopes-Ferreira and others at Brazil’s Butantan Institute are studying the freshwater stingray species Potamotrygon rex to determine whether biological characteristics such as the rays’ age and sex have effect on the toxicity of their venom—that is, to see if differences in these traits are associated with considerable variations in venom potency.

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

A) an imperceptible

B) a disconcerting

C) an acceptable

D) a substantial

Cucurbits, a group of plants that includes squash and melons, relied on mastodons to spread their seeds in the Ice Age. When these animals died out, cucurbits faced extinction in turn, having lost their means of seed dispersal. Around this time, however, the ancestors of Indigenous peoples in North America began raising cucurbits as crops, thus____the plants’ survival.

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

A) ensuring

B) multiplying

C) verifying

D) comforting

Like other tribal nations, the Muscogee (Creek) Nation is self-governing; its National Council generates laws regulating aspects of community life such as land use and healthcare, while the principal chief and cabinet officials____those laws by devising policies and administering services in accordance with them.

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

A) presume

B) improvise

C) implement

D) mimic

The following text is from Claude McKay’s 1922 poem “Morning Joy.” The speaker is looking out a window and observing a wold, or large area of land.

At night the wide and level stretch of wold,
Which at high noon had basked in quiet gold,
Far as the eye could see was ghostly white;
Dark was the night save for the snow’s weird light.

I drew the shades far down, crept into bed;
Hearing the cold wind moaning overhead
Through the sad pines, my soul, catching its pain,
Went sorrowing with it across the plain.

As used in the text, what does the word “drew” most nearly mean?

A) Inspired

B) Pulled

C) Sketched

D) Drained

In habitats with limited nutrients, certain fungus species grow on the roots of trees, engaging in mutually beneficial relationships known as ectomycorrhizae: in this symbiotic exchange, the tree provides the fungus with carbon, a nutrient necessary for both species, and the fungus____by enhancing the tree’s ability to absorb nitrogen, another key nutrient, from the soil.

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

A) overreacts

B) retaliates

C) reciprocates

D) deviates

Although critics believed that customers would never agree to pay to pick their own produce on farms, such concerns didn’t____Booker T. Whatley’s efforts to promote the practice. Thanks in part to Whatley’s determined advocacy, farms that allow visitors to pick their own apples, pumpkins, and other produce can be found throughout the United States.

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

A) enhance

B) aggravate

C) misrepresent

D) hinder

Anthropologist Kristian J. Carlson and colleagues examined the fossilized clavicle and shoulder bones of a 3.6-million-year old early hominin known as “Little Foot.” They found that these bones were____the clavicle and shoulder bones of modern apes that are frequent climbers, such as gorillas and chimpanzees, suggesting that Little Foot had adapted to life in the trees.

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

A) independent of

B) surpassed by

C) comparable to

D) obtained from

Although the playwrights hoped that their play would be____when performed live, critics generally agreed that the production and performances had the opposite effect, wearying audiences instead of energizing them.

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

A) multifaceted

B) realistic

C) rousing

D) subtle

Osage Nation citizen Randy Tinker-Smith produced and directed the ballet Wahzhazhe, which vividly chronicles Osage history and culture. Telling Osage stories through ballet is____choice because two of the foremost ballet dancers of the twentieth century were Osage: sisters Maria and Marjorie Tallchief.

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

A) a suitable

B) an unpredictable

C) an arbitrary

D) a determined