Due to their often strange images, highly experimental syntax, and opaque subject matter, many of John Ashbery’s poems can be quite difficult to____and thus are the object of heated debate among scholars.

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

A) delegate

B) compose

C) renounce

D) interpret

As Mexico’s first president from an Indigenous community, Benito Juarez became one of the most____figures in his country’s history: among the many significant accomplishments of his long tenure in office (1858–1872), Juarez consolidated the authority of the national government and advanced the rights of Indigenous peoples.

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

A) unpredictable

B) important

C) secrtive

D) ordinary

The Cambrian explosion gets its name from the sudden appearance and rapid diversification of animal remains in the fossil record about 541 million years ago, during the Cambrian period. Some scientists argue that this____change in the fossil record might be because of a shift in many organisms to body types that were more likely to be preserved.

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

A) abrupt

B) elusive

C) catastrophic

D) imminent

Within baleen whale species, some individuals develop an accessory spleen—a seemingly functionless formation of splenetic tissue outside the normal spleen. Given the formation’s greater prevalence among whales known to make deeper dives, some researchers hypothesize that its role isn’t____; rather, the accessory spleen may actively support diving mechanisms.

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

A) replicable

B) predetermined

C) operative

D) latent

During a 2014 archaeological dig in Spain, Vicente Lull and his team uncovered the skeleton of a woman from El Algar, an Early Bronze Age society, buried with valuable objects signaling a high position of power. This finding may persuade researchers who have argued that Bronze Age societies were ruled by men to____that women may have also held leadership roles.

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

A)waive

B) refute

C) concede

D) require

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 arguing that it is based on a misconception about phytoplankton species competing with one another.

B) By asserting that it fails to recognize that routine replenishment of ocean nutrients prevents competition between phytoplankton species.

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

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

The author’s claim about the relationship between Neanderthals and Homo sapiens is____, as it fails to account for several recent archaeological discoveries. To be convincing, his argument would need to address recent finds of additional hominid fossils, such as the latest Denisovan specimens and Homo longi.

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

A) disorienting

B) unoriginal

C) nuanced

D) tenuous

The following text is from Georgia Douglas Johnson’s 1922 poem “Benediction.”
Go forth, my son,
Winged by my heart’s desire!
Great reaches,
yet unknown,
Await For your possession.
I may not, if I would,
Retrace the way with you,
My pilgrimage is through,
But life is calling you!

Which choice best states the main purpose of the text?

A) To express hope that a child will have the same accomplishments as his parent did

B) To suggest that raising a child involves many struggles

C) To encourage a child to embrace the experiences life will offer

D) To warn a child that he will face many challenges throughout his life

According to a US tax policy expert, state taxes are____other factors when considering an interstate move. Even significant differences in state taxation have almost no effect on most people’s decisions, while differences in employment opportunities, housing availability, and climate are strong influences.

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

A) consistent with

B) overshadowed by

C) representative of

D) irrelevant to

The following text is adapted from Indian Boyhood, a 1902 memoir by Ohiyesa (Charles A. Eastman), a Santee Dakota writer. In the text, Ohiyesa recalls how the women in his tribe harvested maple syrup during his childhood. Now the women began to test the trees—moving leisurely among them, axe in hand, and striking a single quick blow, to see if the sap would appear. The trees, like people, have their individual characters; some were ready to yield up their life-blood, while others were more reluctant. Now one of the birchen basins was set under each tree, and a hardwood chip driven deep into the cut which the axe had made. From the corners of this chip—at first drop by drop, then more freely—the sap trickled into the little dishes.

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

A) It portrays the range of personality traits displayed by the women as they work.

B) It foregrounds the beneficial relationship between humans and maple trees.

C) It demonstrates how human behavior can be influenced by the natural environment.

D) It elaborates on an aspect of the maple trees that the women evaluate.

When digging for clams, their primary food, sea otters damage the roots of eelgrass plants growing on the seafloor. Near Vancouver Island in Canada, the otter population is large and well established, yet the eelgrass meadows are healthier than those found elsewhere off Canada’s coast. To explain this, conservation scientist Erin Foster and colleagues compared the Vancouver Island meadows to meadows where otters are absent or were reintroduced only recently. Finding that the Vancouver Island meadows have a more diverse gene pool than the others do, Foster hypothesized that damage to eelgrass roots increases the plant’s rate of sexual reproduction; this, in turn, boosts genetic diversity, which benefits the meadow’s health overall.

Which finding, if true, would most directly undermine Foster’s hypothesis?

A) At some sites in the study, eelgrass meadows are found near otter populations that are small and have only recently been reintroduced.

B) At several sites not included in the study, there are large, well-established sea otter populations but no eelgrass meadows.

C) At several sites not included in the study, eelgrass meadows’ health correlates negatively with the length of residence and size of otter populations.

D) At some sites in the study, the health of plants unrelated to eelgrass correlates negatively with the length of residence and size of otter populations.

In 2014, Amelia Quon and her team at NASA set out to build a helicopter capable of flying on Mars. Because Mars’s atmosphere is only one percent as dense as Earth’s, the air of Mars would not provide enough resistance to the rotating blades of a standard helicopter for the aircraft to stay aloft. For five years, Quon’s team tested designs in a lab that mimicked Mars’s atmospheric conditions. The craft the team ultimately designed can fly on Mars because its blades are longer and rotate faster than those of a helicopter of the same size built for Earth.

According to the text, why would a helicopter built for Earth be unable to fly on Mars?

A) Because Mars and Earth have different atmospheric conditions.

B) Because the blades of helicopters built for Earth are too large to work on Mars.

C) Because the gravity of Mars is much weaker than the gravity of Earth.

D) Because helicopters built for Earth are too small to handle the conditions on Mars

In 1934 physicist Eugene Wigner posited the existence of a crystal consisting entirely of electrons in a honeycomb-like structure. The so-called Wigner crystal remained largely conjecture, however, until Feng Wang and colleagues announced in 2021 that they had captured an image of one. The researchers trapped electrons between two semiconductors and then cooled the apparatus, causing the electrons to settle into a crystalline structure. By inserting an ultrathin sheet of graphene above the crystal, the researchers obtained an impression—the first visual confirmation of the Wigner crystal.

Which choice best states the main idea of the text?

A)It’s difficult to acquire an image of a Wigner crystal because of the crystal’s honeycomb structure.

B) Researchers have identified an innovative new method for working with unusual crystalline structures.

C) Graphene is the most important of the components required to capture an image of a Wigner crystal.

D) Researchers have obtained the most definitive evidence to date of the existence of the Wigner crystal.

Scholars have noted that F. Scott Fitzgerald’s writings were likely influenced in part by his marriage to Zelda Fitzgerald, but many don’t recognize Zelda as a writer in her own right. Indeed, Zelda authored several works herself, such as the novel Save Me the Waltz and numerous short stories. Thus, those who primarily view Zelda as an inspiration for F. Scott’s writings____.

Which choice most logically completes the text?

A) overlook the many other factors that motivated F. Scott to write.

B) risk misrepresenting the full range of Zelda’s contributions to literature.

C) may draw inaccurate conclusions about how F. Scott and Zelda viewed each other’s works.

D) tend to read the works of F. Scott and Zelda in an overly autobiographical light.

In West Africa, jalis have traditionally been keepers of information about family histories and records of important events. They have often served as teachers and advisers, too. New technologies may have changed some aspects of the role today, but jalis continue to be valued for knowing and protecting their peoples’ stories.

Which choice best states the main idea of the text?

A) Even though there have been some changes in their role, jalis continue to preserve their communities’ histories.

B) Although jalis have many roles, many of them like teaching best.

C) Jalis have been entertaining the people within their communities for centuries.

D) Technology can now do some of the things jalis used to be responsible for.

To survive when water is scarce, embryos inside African turquoise killifish eggs____a dormant state known as diapause. In this state, embryonic development is paused for as long as two years—longer than the life span of an adult killifish.

Which choice completes the text so that it conforms to the conventions of Standard English?

A)having entered

B) to enter

C) enter

D) entering

Formed in 1967 to foster political and economic stability within the Asia-Pacific region, the Association of Southeast Asian Nations was originally made up of five members: Thailand, the Philippines, Singapore, Malaysia, and Indonesia. By the end of the 1990s, the organization____its initial membership.

Which choice completes the text so that it conforms to the conventions of Standard English?

A) had doubled

B) has doubled

C) doubles

D) will double

Among social animals that care for their young, such as chickens, macaque monkeys, and humans, newborns appear to show an innate attraction to faces and face-like stimuli. Elisabetta Versace and her colleagues used an image of three black dots arranged in the shape of eyes and a nose or mouth to test whether this trait also occurs in Testudo tortoises, which live alone and do not engage in parental care. They found that tortoise hatchlings showed a significant preference for the image, suggesting that____.

Which choice most logically completes the text?

A) face-like stimuli are likely perceived as harmless by newborns of social species that practice parental care but as threatening by newborns of solitary species without parental care.

B) researchers should not assume that an innate attraction to face-like stimuli is necessarily an adaptation related to social interaction or parental care.

C) researchers can assume that the attraction to face-like stimuli that is seen in social species that practice parental care is learned rather than innate.

D) newly hatched Testudo tortoises show a stronger preference for face-like stimuli than adult Testudo tortoises do.

In a study of the cognitive abilities of white-faced capuchin monkeys (Cebus imitator), researchers neglected to control for the physical difficulty of the tasks they used to evaluate the monkeys. The cognitive abilities of monkeys given problems requiring little dexterity, such as sliding a panel to retrieve food, were judged by the same criteria as were those of monkeys given physically demanding problems, such as unscrewing a bottle and inserting a straw. The results of the study, therefore,__

Which choice most logically completes the text?

A) should not be taken as indicative of the cognitive abilities of any monkey species other than C. imitator.

B) are useful for identifying tasks that the monkeys lack the cognitive capacity to perform but not for identifying tasks that the monkeys can perform.

C) could suggest that there are differences in cognitive ability among the monkeys even though such differences may not actually exist.

D) reveal more about the monkeys’ cognitive abilities when solving artificial problems than when solving problems encountered in the wild.

Compiled in the late 1500s largely through the efforts of Indigenous scribes, Cantares Mexicanos is the most important collection of poetry in Classical Nahuatl, the principal language of the Aztec Empire. The poems portray Aztec society before the occupation of the empire by the army of Spain, and marginal notes in Cantares Mexicanos indicate that much of the collection’s content predates the initial invasion. Nonetheless, some of the poems contain inarguable references to beliefs and customs common in Spain during this era. Thus, some scholars have concluded that____.

Which choice most logically completes the text?

A) while its content largely predates the invasion, Cantares Mexicanos also contains additions made after the invasion.

B) although those who compiled Cantares Mexicanos were fluent in Nahuatl, they had limited knowledge of the Spanish language.

C) the references to beliefs and customs in Spain should be attributed to a coincidental resemblance between the societies of Spain and the Aztec Empire.

D) before the invasion by Spain, the poets of the Aztec Empire borrowed from the literary traditions of other societies.

The intense pressure found in the deep ocean can affect the structure of proteins in fish’s cells, distorting the proteins’ shape. The chemical trimethylamine N-oxide (TMAO) counters this effect, ensuring that proteins retain their original____is found in high concentrations in the cells of the deepest-dwelling fish.

Which choice completes the text so that it conforms to the conventions of Standard English?

A)configurations TMAO

B) configurations. TMAO

C) configurations, TMAO

D) configurations and TMAO

Food and the sensation of taste are central to Monique Truong’s novels. In The Book of Salt, for example, the exiled character of Bình connects to his native Saigon through the food he prepares, while in Bitter in the Mouth, the character of Linda____a form of synesthesia whereby the words she hears evoke tastes.

Which choice completes the text so that it conforms to the conventions of Standard English?

A)experienced

B) had experienced

C) experiences

D) will be experiencing

Inventor John Friedman created a prototype of the first flexible straw by inserting a screw into a paper straw and, using dental floss, binding the straw tightly around the____When the floss and screw were removed, the resulting corrugations in the paper allowed the straw to bend easily over the edge of a glass.

Which choice completes the text so that it conforms to the conventions of Standard English?

A) screw’s threads.

B) screw’s thread’s.

C) screws’ threads.

D) screws threads’.

To humans, it does not appear that the golden orb-weaver spider uses camouflage to capture its____the brightly colored arachnid seems to wait conspicuously in the center of its large circular web for insects to approach. Researcher Po Peng of the University of Melbourne has explained that the spider’s distinctive coloration may in fact be part of its appeal.

Which choice completes the text so that it conforms to the conventions of Standard English?

A) prey, rather,

B) prey rather,

C) prey, rather;

D) prey; rather,

In her analysis of Edith Wharton’s The House of Mirth (1905), scholar Candace Waid observes that the novel depicts the upper classes of New York society as “consumed by the appetite of a soulless____an apt assessment given that The House of Mirth is set during the Gilded Age, a period marked by rapid industrialization, economic greed, and widening wealth disparities.

Which choice completes the text so that it conforms to the conventions of Standard English?

A) materialism'; and

B) materialism' and

C) materialism,'

D) materialism'

In crafting her fantasy fiction, Nigerian-born British author Helen Oyeyemi has drawn inspiration from the classic nineteenth-century fairy tales of the Brothers Grimm. Her 2014 novel Boy, Snow, Bird, for instance, is a complex retelling of the story of Snow White, while her 2019 novel____offers a delicious twist on the classic tale of Hansel and Gretel.

Which choice completes the text so that it conforms to the conventions of Standard English?

A) Gingerbread

B) Gingerbread—

C) Gingerbread,

D) Gingerbread:

In Death Valley National Park’s Racetrack Playa, a flat, dry lakebed, are 162 rocks—some weighing less than a pound but others almost 700 pounds—that move periodically from place to place, seemingly of their own volition. Racetrack-like trails in the____mysterious migration.

Which choice completes the text so that it conforms to the conventions of Standard English?

A) playas sediment mark the rock’s

B) playa’s sediment mark the rocks

C) playas’ sediment mark the rocks’

D) playa’s sediment mark the rocks’

While researching a topic, a student has taken the following notes:
• Abdulrazak Gurnah was awarded the 2021 Nobel Prize in Literature.
• Gurnah was born in Zanzibar in East Africa and currently lives in the United Kingdom.
• Many readers have singled out Gurnah’s 1994 book Paradise for praise.
• Paradise is a historical novel about events that occurred in colonial East Africa.

The student wants to introduce Paradise to an audience unfamiliar with the novel and its author. Which choice most effectively uses relevant information from the notes to accomplish this goal?

A) Abdulrazak Gurnah, who wrote Paradise and later was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature, was born in Zanzibar in East Africa and currently lives in the United Kingdom.

B) A much-praised historical novel about colonial East Africa, Paradise (1994) was written by Abdulrazak Gurnah, winner of the 2021 Nobel Prize in Literature.

C) Many readers have singled out Abdulrazak Gurnah’s 1994 book Paradise, a historical novel about colonial East Africa, for praise.

D) Paradise is a historical novel about events that occurred in colonial East Africa, Abdulrazak Gurnah’s homeland.

While researching a topic, a student has taken the following notes:
• NASA uses rovers, large remote vehicles with wheels, to explore the surface of Mars.
• NASA’s rovers can’t explore regions inaccessible to wheeled vehicles.
• Rovers are also heavy, making them difficult to land on the planet’s surface.
• Microprobes, robotic probes that weigh as little as 50 milligrams, could be deployed virtually anywhere on the surface of Mars.
• Microprobes have been proposed as an alternative to rovers. The student wants to explain an advantage of microprobes.

Which choice most effectively uses relevant information from the notes to accomplish this goal?

A) Despite being heavy, NASA’s rovers can land successfully on the surface of Mars.

B) NASA currently uses its rovers on Mars, but microprobes have been proposed as an alternative.

C) Microprobes, which weigh as little as 50 milligrams, could explore areas of Mars that are inaccessible to NASA’s heavy, wheeled rovers.

D) Though they are different sizes, both microprobes and rovers can be used to explore the surface of Mars.

While researching a topic, a student has taken the following notes:
• Ulaanbaatar is the capital of Mongolia.
• The city’s population is 907,802.
• Ulaanbaatar contains 31.98 percent of Mongolia’s population.
• Hanoi is the capital of Vietnam.
• The city’s population is 7,781,631.
• Hanoi contains 8.14 percent of Vietnam’s population.

Which choice most effectively uses information from the given sentences to emphasize the relative sizes of the two capitals’ populations?

A) Mongolia’s capital is Ulaanbaatar, which has 907,802 people, and Vietnam’s capital is Hanoi, which has 7,781,631 people.

B) The populations of the capitals of Mongolia and Vietnam are 907,802 (Ulaanbaatar) and 7,781,631 (Hanoi), respectively.

C) Comparing Vietnam and Mongolia, 7,781,631 is 8.14 percent of Vietnam’s population, and 907,802 is 31.98 percent of Mongolia’s.

D) Even though Hanoi (population 7,781,631) is larger than Ulaanbaatar (population 907,802), Ulaanbaatar accounts for more of its country’s population.