The artisans of the Igun Eronmwon guild in Benin City, Nigeria, typically____the bronze- and brass-casting techniques that have been passed down through their families since the thirteenth century, but they don’t strictly observe every tradition; for example, guild members now use air-conditioning motors instead of handheld bellows to help heat their forges.

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

A) experiment with

B) adhere to

C) improve on

D) grapple with

Critics have asserted that fine art and fashion rarely____in a world where artists create timeless works for exhibition and designers periodically produce new styles for the public to buy. Luiseño/Shoshone-Bannock beadwork artist and designer Jamie Okuma challenges this view: her work can be seen in the Metropolitan Museum of Art and purchased through her online boutique.

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

A) prevail

B) succumb

C) diverge

D) intersect

As an undergraduate researcher in anthropology, Jennifer C. Chen contributed to a groundbreaking study challenging the accepted view that among prehistoric peoples, female participation in hunting was____. The research team’s review of data from late Pleistocene and early Holocene burials in the Americas revealed that, in fact, as many as half of the hunters in those populations were female.

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

A) inevitable

B) satisfactory

C) negligible

D) commonplace

Although science fiction was dominated mostly by white male authors when Octavia Butler, a Black woman, began writing, she did not view the genre as____: Butler broke into the field with the publication of several short stories and her 1976 novel Patternmaster, and she later became the first science fiction writer to win a prestigious MacArthur Fellowship.

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

A) legitimate

B) impenetrable

C) compelling

D) indecipherable

The following text is adapted from Nathaniel Hawthorne’s 1837 story “Dr. Heidegger’s Experiment.” The main character, a physician, is experimenting with rehydrating a dried flower.

At first [the rose] lay lightly on the surface of the fluid, appearing to imbibe none of its moisture. Soon, however, a singular change began to be visible. The crushed and dried petals stirred and assumed a deepening tinge of crimson, as if the flower were reviving from a deathlike slumber.

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

A)A lonely

B) A disagreeable

C) An acceptable

D) An extraordinary