Martin Dančák, Wewin Tjiasmanto, and colleagues have identified a new carnivorous plant species (Nepenthes pudica) in Indonesia. Like other carnivorous plants, N. pudica has pitfall traps, or pitchers, that capture prey, but unlike others, the pitchers of N. pudica are located underground. The researchers unearthed the new species on fairly dry ridges with surfaces that host few other plants and animals. Therefore, the researchers hypothesize that the N. pudica species likely____

Which choice most logically completes the text?

A) represents one of many undiscovered carnivorous plant species in the region.

B) formed pitchers early in development to absorb more moisture.

C) is buried by nearby animals as they forage along the ridges for food.

D) evolved to have underground traps to access more prey than would surface traps.

As the name suggests, dramaturges originated in theater, where they continue to serve a variety of functions: conducting historical research for directors, compiling character biographies for actors, and perhaps most importantly, helping writers of plays and musicals to hone the works’ stories and characters. Performance scholar Susan Manning observes that many choreographers, like playwrights and musical theater writers, are concerned with storytelling and characterization. In fact,some choreographers describe the dances they create as expressions of narrative through movement; it is therefore unsurprising that____

Which choice most logically completes the text?

A)dramaturges can have a profound impact on the artistic direction of plays and musicals.

B) choreographers developing dances with narrative elements frequently engage dramaturges to assist in refining those elements.

C) dances by choreographers who incorporate narrative elements are more accessible to audiences than dances by choreographers who do not.

D) some directors and actors rely too heavily on dramaturges to complete certain research tasks.

Martin Dančák, Wewin Tjiasmanto, and colleagues have identified a new carnivorous plant species (Nepenthes pudica) in Indonesia. Like other carnivorous plants, N. pudica has pitfall traps, or pitchers, that capture prey, but unlike others, the pitchers of N. pudica are located underground. The researchers unearthed the new species on fairly dry ridges with surfaces that host few other plants and animals. Therefore, the researchers hypothesize that the N. pudica species likely____

Which choice most logically completes the text?

A) represents one of many undiscovered carnivorous plant species in the region.

B) evolved to have underground traps to access more prey than would surface traps.

C) is buried by nearby animals as they forage along the ridges for food.

D) formed pitchers early in development to absorb more moisture.

Off-off-Broadway theaters emerged in the late 1950s as a rebellion against mainstream Broadway theaters in New York,freeing artists to create productions that were more experimental than typical Broadway shows. One such artist was playwright María Irene Fornés. Working with off-off Broadway theaters enabled Fornés not only to direct her own plays but also to direct them exactly as she intended them to be staged, regardless of how strange the results might have seemed to audiences accustomed to Broadway shows. In this way, Fornés____

Which choice most logically completes the text?

A)wrote plays that would have been too expensive to produce if someone else had directed the production.

B) recognized that staging an off-off-Broadway play was more complicated than staging a Broadway play.

C) illustrates the artistic opportunity offered by off-off Broadway theaters.

D) would have been more famous if she had created plays that were mainstream instead of experimental.

Some businesses believe that when employees are interrupted while doing their work, they experience a decrease in energy and productivity. However, a team led by Harshad Puranik, who studies management, has found that interruptions by colleagues can have a social component that increases employees’ sense of belonging, resulting in greater job satisfaction that benefits employees and employers. Therefore, businesses should recognize that_

Which choice most logically completes the text?

A) the interpersonal benefits of some interruptions in the workplace may offset the perceived negative effects.

B) in order to maximize productivity, employers should be willing to interrupt employees frequently throughout the day.

C) most employees avoid interrupting colleagues because they don’t appreciate being interrupted themselves.

D) in order to cultivate an ideal workplace environment, interruptions of work should be discouraged.

Dutch painters in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries often showed tables filled with large wheels of cheese or carved shards of butter. Some art historians, noting that dairy products were a major component of the Dutch diet, interpret these depictions as reflections of everyday Dutch eating habits. However, a group of researchers recently reviewed hundreds of food-related paintings and found that lemons—which could only be acquired in the Netherlands at great cost, since they had to be imported from warmer climates—feature in Dutch paintings of the period more than three times as frequently as dairy products do, thereby casting doubt on the idea that____

Which choice most logically completes the text?

A) dairy products were a more significant component of the Dutch diet of the period than lemons were.

B) food was a more popular subject among Dutch painters than it was among painters from other countries at the time.

C) depictions of food in Dutch paintings of the period should be taken as realistic representations of Dutch eating habits.

D) Dutch painters of the period may have depicted foods for symbolic reasons rather than to show what Dutch people typically ate.

To investigate the history of plate subduction—when one of Earth’s tectonic plates slides beneath another—Sarah M. Aarons and colleagues compared ancient rocks from the Acasta Gneiss Complex in Canada to modern rocks. Using isotope analysis, the researchers found that Acasta rocks dating to about 4.02 billion years ago (bya) most strongly resemble modern rocks formed in a plume setting (an area in which hot rocks from Earth’s mantle flow upward into the crust). By contrast, they found that Acasta rocks dating to about 3.75 bya and 3.6 bya have an isotope composition that is similar to that of modern rocks formed in a subduction setting. Aarons’s team therefore concluded that____.

Which choice most logically completes the text?

A) subduction-like processes began occurring in some locations no later than 3.75 bya.

B) subduction replaced mantle plume formation as the most common geological process by about 4.02 bya.

C) the majority of the rocks in the Acasta Gneiss Complex formed through subduction.

D) the rocks in the Acasta Gneiss Complex are of a more recent origin than scientists previously thought.

The ancient Sumerian civilization formed around 4000 BCE between two large rivers in an area that is now Iraq and Syria.The extremely hot and sunny weather in that area helped crops grow very quickly, but it also made it hard to keep the crops from drying up and dying. So, the Sumerians used water from the rivers in their farming. That method worked so well that they often could harvest even more crops than they needed in a season. As a result, the Sumerians____.

Which choice most logically completes the text?

A) harvested crops only on the hottest days of each season.

B) found ways to shield their crops from the sun.

C) did not begin farming until long after 4000 BCE.

D) were able to store extra crops for later use.

Ana Castillo’s 1986 novel The Mixquiahuala Letters is a story told entirely through expressive letters from the narrator to her friend—letters that Castillo suggests could be read in several different orders. As they began reading it in class, some students remarked that they found the novel’s letter format daunting and its treatment of gender relations old-fashioned. The professor, however, pointed out that the novel is written in modern-sounding language and addresses issues that still matter today, suggesting that The Mixquiahuala Letters____

Which choice most logically completes the text?

A) has more to say about gender relations than other novels from the same period.

B) is more relevant to contemporary audiences than it may seem at first.

C) is easier to read than many contemporary novels that focus on friendship.

D) is best understood after multiple readings in different orders.

It’s common for jazz musicians and fans to refer to certain songs as having “swing,” indicating that the songs provoke a strong feeling, like the impulse to tap one’s foot or dance. The exact acoustic properties that give a song swing, however,have long been thought to be undefinable. To investigate swing, a team led by physicist Corentin Nelias delayed the downbeats and synchronized the offbeats in jazz piano solos and asked jazz musicians to compare the intensity of swing in each modified piece with the intensity of swing in the original piece. They found that participants were more than seven times likelier to characterize the modified songs as having swing than to characterize the original versions as having swing, suggesting that____

Which choice most logically completes the text?

A) synchronized offbeats tend to give a song swing regardless of whether downbeats are delayed.

B) the acoustic properties that give a song swing are not easy for jazz musicians to manipulate.

C) the timing of downbeats and offbeats may play a crucial role in giving a song swing. 

D) jazz songs that feature the piano are more likely to have swing than are jazz songs that do not feature the piano.