“How lifelike are they?” How lifelike are they?” Many computer animators prioritize this question as they strive to create ever more realistic environments and lighting. Generally, while characters in computer-animated films appear highly exaggerated, environments and lighting are carefully engineered to mimic reality. But some animators, such as Pixar’s Sanjay Patel, are focused on a different question. Rather than asking first whether the environments and lighting they’re creating are convincingly lifelike,Patel and others are asking whether these elements reflect their films’ unique stories.

Which choice best describes the function of the underlined question in the text as a whole?

A) It reflects a primary goal that many computer animators have for certain components of the animations they produce.

B) It represents a concern of computer animators who are more interested in creating unique backgrounds and lighting effects than realistic ones.

C) It conveys the uncertainty among many computer animators about how to create realistic animations using current technology.

D) It illustrates a reaction that audiences typically have to the appearance of characters created by computer animators.

The field of study called affective neuroscience seeks instinctive, physiological causes for feelings such as pleasure or displeasure. Because these sensations are linked to a chemical component (for example, the release of the neurotransmitter dopamine in the brain when one receives or expects a reward), they can be said to have a partly physiological basis. These processes have been described in mammals, but Jingnan Huang and his colleagues have recently observed that some behaviors of honeybees (such as foraging) are also motivated by a dopamine-based signaling process.

What choice best describes the main purpose of the text?

A)It describes an experimental method of measuring the strength of physiological responses in humans.

B) It summarizes a finding suggesting that some mechanisms in the brains of certain insects resemble mechanisms in mammalian brains.

C) It illustrates processes by which certain insects can express how they are feeling.

D) It presents research showing that certain insects and mammals behave similarly when there is a possibility of a reward for their actions.

Studying late nineteenth- and early twentieth-century artifacts from an agricultural and domestic site in Texas, archaeologist Ayana O. Flewellen found that Black women employed as farm workers utilized hook-and-eye closures to fasten their clothes at the waist, giving themselves a silhouette similar to the one that was popular in contemporary fashion and typically achieved through more restrictive garments such as corsets. Flewellen argues that this sartorial practice shows that these women balanced hegemonic ideals of femininity with the requirements of their physically demanding occupation.

Which choice best states the main purpose of the text?

A) To describe an unexpected discovery that altered a researcher’s view of how rapidly fashions among Black female farmworkers in late nineteenth- and early twentieth-century Texas changed during the period.

B) To discuss research that investigated the ways in which Black female farmworkers in late nineteenth- and early twentieth-century Texas used fashion practices to resist traditional gender ideals.

C) To evaluate a scholarly work that offers explanations for the impact of urban fashion ideals on Black female farmworkers in late nineteenth- and early twentieth-century Texas.

D) To summarize the findings of a study that explored factors influencing a fashion practice among Black female farmworkers in late nineteenth- and early twentieth-century Texas.

Astronomers are confident that the star Betelgeuse will eventually consume all the helium in its core and explode in a supernova. They are much less confident, however, about when this will happen, since that depends on internal characteristics of Betelgeuse that are largely unknown. Astrophysicist Sarafina El-Badry Nance and colleagues recently investigated whether acoustic waves in the star could be used to determine internal stellar states but concluded that this method could not sufficiently reveal Betelgeuse’s internal characteristics to allow its evolutionary state to be firmly fixed.

Which choice best describes the function of the second sentence in the overall structure of the text?

A)It describes a serious limitation of the method used by Nance and colleagues.

B) It presents the central finding reported by Nance and colleagues.

C) It identifies the problem that Nance and colleagues attempted to solve but did not.

D) It explains how the work of Nance and colleagues was received by others in the field.

According to historian Vicki L. Ruiz, Mexican American women made crucial contributions to the labor movement during World War II. At the time, food processing companies entered into contracts to supply United States armed forces with canned goods. Increased production quotas conferred greater bargaining power on the companies’ employees, many of whom were Mexican American women: employees insisted on more favorable benefits, and employers, who were anxious to fulfill the contracts, complied. Thus, labor activism became a platform for Mexican American women to assert their agency.

Which choice best describes the function of the underlined portion in the text as a whole?

A) It offers an example of a trend in the World War II–era economy discussed earlier in the text.

B) It elaborates on a claim about labor relations in a particular industry made earlier in the text.

C) It notes a possible exception to the historical narrative of labor activism sketched earlier in the text.

D) It provides further details about the identities of the workers discussed earlier in the text.

The following text is from Charlotte Brontë’s 1847 novel Jane Eyre. Jane, the narrator, works as a governess at Thornfield Hall. I went on with my day’s business tranquilly; but ever and anon vague suggestions kept wandering across my brain of reasons why I should quit Thornfield; and I kept involuntarily framing advertisements and pondering conjectures about new situations: these thoughts I did not think to check; they might germinate and bear fruit if they could.

Which choice best states the main purpose of the text?

A)To emphasize Jane’s loyalty to the people she works for at Thornfield Hall.

B) It responds to criticism of Keyboard Fantasies by some younger musicians.

C) To convey a contrast between Jane’s outward calmness and internal restlessness.

D) To describe Jane’s determination to secure employment outside of Thornfield Hall.

The following text is adapted from Herman Melville’s 1857 novel The Confidence-Man. Humphry Davy was a prominent British chemist and inventor. Years ago, a grave American savant, being in London, observed at an evening party there, a certain coxcombical fellow, as he thought, an absurd ribbon in his lapel, and full of smart [banter], whisking about to the admiration of as many as were disposed to admire. Great was the savant’s disdain; but, chancing ere long to find himself in a corner with the jackanapes, got into conversation with him, when he was somewhat ill-prepared for the good sense of the jackanapes,but was altogether thrown aback, upon subsequently being [informed that he was] no less a personage than Sir Humphry Davy.

Which choice best states the main purpose of the text?

A) It portrays the thoughts of a character who is embarrassed about his own behavior.

B) It offers a short history of how a person came to be famous.

C) It presents an account of a misunderstanding.

D) The speaker describes attempts to control nature and then offers a reminder that not all nature is controllable.

Some studies have suggested that posture can influence cognition, but we should not overstate this phenomenon. A case in point: In a 2014 study, Megan O’Brien and Alaa Ahmed had subjects stand or sit while making risky simulated economic decisions. Standing is more physically unstable and cognitively demanding than sitting; accordingly, O’Brien and Ahmed hypothesized that standing subjects would display more risk aversion during the decision-making tasks than sitting subjects did, since they would want to avoid further feelings of discomfort and complicated risk evaluations. But O’Brien and Ahmed actually found no difference in the groups’ performance.

Which choice best states the main purpose of the text?

A) It argues that research findings about the effects of posture on cognition are often misunderstood, as in the case of O’Brien and Ahmed’s study.

B) It presents the study by O’Brien and Ahmed to critique the methods and results reported in previous studies of the effects of posture on cognition.

C) It discusses the study by O’Brien and Ahmed to illustrate why caution is needed when making claims about the effects of posture on cognition.

D) It explains a significant problem in the emerging understanding of posture’s effects on cognition and how O’Brien and Ahmed tried to solve that problem.

In Jane Austen’s novel Mansfield Park, an almost imperceptible smile from potential suitor Henry Crawford causes the protagonist Fanny Price to blush; her embarrassment grows when she suspects that he is aware of it. This moment—in which Fanny not only infers Henry’s mental state through his gestures, but also infers that he is drawing inferences about her mental state—illustrates what literary scholar George Butte calls “deep intersubjectivity,” a technique for representing interactions between consciousnesses through which Austen’s novels derive much of their social and psychological drama.

Which choice best describes the function of the underlined sentence in the text as a whole?

A) It states a claim about Austen’s skill at representing psychological complexity that is reinforced by an example presented in the following sentence.

B) It advances an interpretation of an Austen protagonist who is contrasted with protagonists from other Austen novels cited in the following sentence.

C) It provides a synopsis of an interaction in an Austen novel that illustrates a literary concept discussed in the following sentence.

D) It describes a recurring theme in Austen’s novels that is the focus of a literary scholar’s analysis summarized in the following sentence.

The following text is from Edith Wharton’s 1905 novel The House of Mirth. Lily Bart and a companion are walking through a park. Lily had no real intimacy with nature, but she had a passion for the appropriate and could be keenly sensitive to a scene which was the fitting background of her own sensations. The landscape outspread below her seemed an enlargement of her present mood, and she found something of herself in its calmness, its breadth, its long free reaches. On the nearer slopes the sugar-maples wavered like pyres of light; lower down was a massing of grey orchards, and here and there the lingering green of an oak-grove.

Which choice best describes the function of the underlined sentence in the text as a whole?

A)It illustrates an idea that is introduced in the previous sentence.

B) It creates a detailed image of the physical setting of the scene.

C) It establishes that a character is experiencing an internal conflict.

D) It makes an assertion that the next sentence then expands on.