The following text is adapted from Zora Neale Hurston’s 1921 short story “John Redding Goes to Sea.” John wants to travel far beyond the village where he lives near his mother, Matty. [John] had on several occasions attempted to reconcile his mother to the notion, but found it a difficult task. Matty always took refuge in self-pity and tears. Her son’s desires were incomprehensible to her, that was all.

As used in the text, what does the phrase “reconcile his mother to” most nearly mean?

A) Get his mother to accept

B) Get his mother to apologize for

C) Get his mother to match

D) Get his mother to reunite with

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

In Nature Poem (2017), Kumeyaay poet Tommy Pico portrays his____the natural world by honoring the centrality of nature within his tribe’s traditional beliefs while simultaneously expressing his distaste for being in wilderness settings himself.

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

A) responsiveness to

B) ambivalence toward

C) renunciation of

D) mastery over

In studying the use of external stimuli to reduce the itching sensation caused by an allergic histamine response, Louise Ward and colleagues found that while harmless applications of vibration or warming can provide a temporary distraction, such____stimuli actually offer less relief than a stimulus that seems less benign, like a mild electric shock.

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

A) deceptive

B) innocuous

C) novel

D) impractical

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