The following text is from Nella Larsen’s 1928 novel Quicksand.

The trees in their spring beauty sent through her restive mind a sharp thrill of pleasure. Seductive, charming, and beckoning as cities were, they had not this easy unhuman loveliness.

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

A) Demanding

B) Inviting

C) Shifting

D) Signaling

Researchers have struggled to pinpoint specific causes for hiccups, which happen when a person’s diaphragm contracts____.However, neuroscientist Kimberley Whitehead has found that these uncontrollable contractions may play an important role in helping infants regulate their breathing.

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

A) beneficially

B) strenuously

C) smoothly

D) involuntarily

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) implement

B) presume

C) improvise

D) mimic

Charles “Teenie” Harris was a photographer for the Pittsburgh Courier from 1936 to 1975. During his career he took over 70,000 photographs documenting everyday life in Pittsburgh’s Black communities. The Carnegie Museum of Art maintains thousands of his photographs, carefully____them so that audiences can continue to view them well into the future.

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

A) replacing

B) inventing

C) preserving

D) counting

The following text is adapted from Sui Sin Far’s 1912 short story “Mrs. Spring Fragrance.” Mr. and Mrs. Spring Fragrance immigrated to the United States from China.

Mrs. Spring Fragrance was unaware that Mr. Spring Fragrance, tired with the day’s business, had thrown himself down on the bamboo settee on the veranda, and that although his eyes were engaged in scanning the pages of the Chinese World, his ears could not help receiving the words which were borne to him through the open window.

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

A) Denying

B) Hearing

C) Carrying

D) Entering

Former astronaut Ellen Ochoa says that although she doesn’t have a definite idea of when it might happen, she____that humans will someday need to be able to live in other environments than those found on Earth. This conjecture informs her interest in future research missions to the moon.

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

A) demands

B) establishes

C) speculates

D) doubts

Physicist Joseph Weber performed____work in gravitational wave research in the 1960s and 1970s, conducting key experiments that scientists later used as the basis for their own investigations that led to the first verified detection of a gravitational wave in 2015.

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

A) supplementary

B) repetitive

C) ineffective

D) foundational

The following text is adapted from Amy Lowell’s 1912 poem “Summer.”

It is summer, glorious, deep-toned summer, The very crown of nature’s changing year When all her surging life is at its full. To me alone it is a time of pause, A void and silent space between two worlds, When inspiration lags, and feeling sleeps, Gathering strength for efforts yet to come.

As used in the text, what does the phrase “a void” most nearly mean?

A) A useless

B) A forgotten

C) An empty

D) A forgotten

The Appalachian Trail is a hiking path in the eastern United States. Much of the 2,000 mile trail passes through wilderness areas. In order to____those areas, the United States Congress passed the National Trails System Act in 1968, ensuring that the trail would not be sold or commercially developed.

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

A) borrow

B) postpone

C) protect

D) decorate

The following text is from Bram Stoker’s 1897 novel Dracula. The narrator is being driven in a carriage through a remote region at night.

The baying of the wolves sounded nearer and nearer, as though they were closing round on us from every side. I grew dreadfully afraid, and the horses shared my fear. The driver, however, was not in the least disturbed; he kept turning his head to left and right, but I could not see anything through the darkness.

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

A)Disorganized

B) Offended

C) Interrupted

D) Alarmed