Text 1

Conventional wisdom long held that human social systems evolved in stages, beginning with hunter-gatherers forming small bands of members with roughly equal status. The shift to agriculture about 12,000 years ago sparked population growth that led to the emergence of groups with hierarchical structures: associations of clans first, then chiefdoms, and finally, bureaucratic states.

Text 2

In a 2021 book, anthropologist David Graeber and archaeologist David Wengrow maintain that humans have always been socially flexible, alternately forming systems based on hierarchy and collective ones with decentralized leadership. The authors point to evidence that as far back as 50,000 years ago some hunter-gatherers adjusted their social structures seasonally, at times dispersing in small groups but also assembling into communities that included esteemed individuals.

Based on the texts, how would Graeber and Wengrow (Text 2) most likely respond to the “conventional wisdom” presented in Text 1?

A) By conceding the importance of hierarchical systems but asserting the greater significance of decentralized collective societies.

B) By acknowledging that hierarchical roles likely weren’t a part of social systems before the rise of agriculture.

C) By challenging the assumption that groupings of hunter-gatherers were among the earliest forms of social structure.

D) By disputing the idea that developments in social structures have followed a linear progression through distinct stages.

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 be adequately explained without suggesting that the magpies were attempting to assist the other magpie.

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

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

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

Text

Virginia Woolf’s 1928 novel Orlando is an oddity within her body of work. Her other major novels consist mainly of scenes of everyday life and describe their characters’ interior states in great detail, whereas Orlando propels itself through a series of fantastical events and considers its characters’ psychology more superficially. Woolf herself sometimes regarded the novel as a minor work, even admitting once that she “began it as a joke.”

Text 2

Like Woolf’s other great novels, Orlando portrays how people’s memories inform their experience of the present. Like those works, it examines how people navigate social interactions shaped by gender and social class. Though it is lighter in tone—more entertaining, even—this literary “joke” nonetheless engages seriously with the themes that motivated the four or five other novels by Woolf that have achieved the status of literary classics.

Based on the texts, how would the author of Text 2 most likely respond to the assessment of Orlando presented in Text 1?

A) By conceding that Woolf’s talents were best suited to serious novels but asserting that the humor in Orlando is often effective.

B) By agreeing that Orlando is less impressive than certain other novels by Woolf but arguing that it should still be regarded as a classic.

C) By acknowledging that Orlando clearly differs from Woolf’s other major novels but insisting on its centrality to her body of work nonetheless.

D) By concurring that the reputation of Orlando as a minor work has led readers to overlook this novel but maintaining that the reputation is unearned.

Text 1

In 2021, a team led by Amir Siraj hypothesized that the Chicxulub impactor—the object that struck the Yucatán Peninsula sixty-six million years ago, precipitating the mass extinction of the dinosaurs—was likely a member of the class of long period comets. As evidence, Siraj cited the carbonaceous chondritic composition of samples from the Chicxulub impact crater as well as of samples obtained from long-period comet Wild 2 in 2006.

Text 2

Although long-period comets contain carbonaceous chondrites, asteroids are similarly rich in these materials. Furthermore,some asteroids are rich in iridium, as Natalia Artemieva points out, whereas long-period comets are not. Given the prevalence of iridium at the crater and, more broadly, in geological layers deposited worldwide following the impact,Artemieva argues that an asteroid is a more plausible candidate for the Chicxulub impactor.

Based on the texts, how would Artemieva likely respond to Siraj’s hypothesis, as presented in Text 1?

A)By insisting that it overestimates how representative Wild 2 is of long-period comets as a class.

B) By arguing that it does not account for the amount of iridium found in geological layers dating to the Chicxulub impact.

C) By praising it for connecting the composition of Chicxulub crater samples to the composition of certain asteroids.

D) By concurring that carbonaceous chondrites are prevalent in soil samples from sites distant from the Chicxulub crater.

Text 1

In 1916, H. Dugdale Sykes disputed claims that The Two Noble Kinsmen was coauthored by William Shakespeare and John Fletcher. Sykes felt Fletcher’s contributions to the play were obvious—Fletcher had a distinct style in his other plays, so much so that lines with that style were considered sufficient evidence of Fletcher’s authorship. But for the lines not deemed to be by Fletcher, Sykes felt that their depiction of women indicated that their author was not Shakespeare but Philip Massinger.

Text 2

Scholars have accepted The Two Noble Kinsmen as coauthored by Shakespeare since the 1970s: it appears in all major one volume editions of Shakespeare’s complete works. Though scholars disagree about who wrote what exactly, it is generally held that on the basis of style, Shakespeare wrote all of the first act and most of the last, while John Fletcher authored most of the three middle acts.

Based on the texts, both Sykes in Text 1 and the scholars in Text 2 would most likely agree with which statement?

A) John Fletcher’s writing has a unique, readily identifiable style.

B) The women characters in John Fletcher’s plays are similar to the women characters in Philip Massinger’s plays.

C) The Two Noble Kinsmen belongs in one-volume compilations of Shakespeare’s complete plays.

D) 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.

Text 1

Like the work of Ralph Ellison before her, Toni Morrison’s novels feature scenes in which characters deliver sermons of such length and verbal dexterity that for a time, the text exchanges the formal parameters of fiction for those of oral literature.Given the many other echoes of Ellison in Morrison’s novels, both in structure and prose style, these scenes suggest Ellison’s direct influence on Morrison.

Text 2

In their destabilizing effect on literary form, the sermons in Morrison’s works recall those in Ellison’s. Yet literature by Black Americans abounds in moments where interpolated speech erodes the division between oral and written forms that literature in English has traditionally observed. Morrison’s use of the sermon is attributable not only to the influence of Ellison but also to a community-wide strategy of resistance to externally imposed literary conventions.

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

A) As misunderstanding the function of sermons in novels by Black American writers other than Ellison and Morrison.

B) As failing to consider Ellison’s and Morrison’s equivalent uses of the sermon within the wider cultural context in which they wrote.

C) As disregarding points of structural and stylistic divergence between the works of Ellison and those of Morrison.

D) As being indebted to the tradition of resisting literary conventions that privilege written forms, such as novels, over sermons and other oral forms.

Text 1

Astronomer Mark Holland and colleagues examined four white dwarfs—small, dense remnants of past stars—in order to determine the composition of exoplanets that used to orbit those stars. Studying wavelengths of light in the white dwarf atmospheres, the team reported that traces of elements such as lithium and sodium support the presence of exoplanets with continental crusts similar to Earth’s.

Text 2

Past studies of white dwarf atmospheres have concluded that certain exoplanets had continental crusts. Geologist Keith Putirka and astronomer Siyi Xu argue that those studies unduly emphasize atmospheric traces of lithium and other individual elements as signifiers of the types of rock found on Earth. The studies don’t adequately account for different minerals made up of various ratios of those elements, and the possibility of rock types not found on Earth that contain those minerals.

Based on the texts, how would Putirka and Xu (Text 2) most likely characterize the conclusion presented in Text 1?

A)As unexpected, because it was widely believed at the time that white dwarf exoplanets lack continental crusts.

B) As premature, because researchers have only just begun trying to determine what kinds of crusts white dwarf exoplanets had.

C) As questionable, because it rests on an incomplete consideration of potential sources of the elements detected in white dwarf atmospheres.

D) As puzzling, because it’s unusual to successfully detect lithium and sodium when analyzing wavelengths of light in white dwarf atmospheres.

Text 1

The Cretaceous-Paleogene (K-Pg) mass extinction event is usually attributed solely to an asteroid impact near Chicxulub,Mexico. Some scientists argue that volcanic activity was the true cause, as the K-Pg event occurred relatively early in a long period of eruption of the Deccan Traps range that initially produced huge amounts of climate-altering gases. These dissenters note that other mass extinctions have coincided with large volcanic eruptions, while only the K-Pg event lines up with an asteroid strike.

Text 2

In a 2020 study, Pincelli Hull and her colleagues analyzed ocean core samples and modeled climate changes around the K Pg event. The team concluded that Deccan Traps gases did affect global conditions prior to the event, but that the climate returned to normal well before the extinctions began—extinctions that instead closely align with the Chicxulub impact.

Based on the texts, how would Hull’s team (Text 2) most likely respond to the argument in the underlined portion of Text 1?

A)By declaring that the changes in climate caused by the Deccan Traps eruption weren’t the main cause of the K-Pg event.

B) By agreeing that the Chicxulub impact changed the climate and that the Deccan Traps eruption caused the K-Pg event

C) By questioning why those scientists assume that the Chicxulub impact caused the Deccan Traps eruption

D) By asserting that the Deccan Traps eruption had a more significant effect on global conditions than those scientists claim.

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

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

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

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.

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

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

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