Practice Set 5

Practice Set 5
1. Virginia Woolf ------ conventional notions of truth: in her words, one cannot receive from
any lecture "a nugget of pure truth” to wrap up between the pages of one's notebook and
keep on the mantelpiece forever.
(A) anticipates
(B) articulates
(C) neglects
(D) mocks
(E) rationalizes
2. To the general manager’s consternation, her employees ------ the very protocol revisions
that she had hoped would pass through the various levels of the company with any a
ripple.
(A) held a grudge against
(B) became wary of
(C) took exception to
(D) chewed over
(E) remained aloof to
3. Liberty is no easy, but far better to be an (i) --------- fox, hungry and threatened on hill,
than a (ii) --------- canary, sage and secure in its cage.
Blank (i) Blank (ii)
(A) unfriendly (D) well-fed
(B) imperious (E) lethargic
(C) unfettered (F) content
4. Any population increase beyond a certain level (i) --------- greater (ii) --------- vegetable
foods; thus, the ability of a society to choose meat over cereals always arises, in part, from
(iii) --------- the number of people.
Blank (i) Blank (ii) Blank (iii)
(A) necessitates (D) gratification of (G) replenishing
(B) caters to (E) recourse to (H) concealing
(C) eludes (F) cultivation (I) limiting
Select TWO answer choices.

5. Not only was Franz Liszt a consummate technical wizard at the piano, he was so ------ as
to faithfully mimic the playing of others that Chopin once exclaimed he had thought his
own ghost was at the keys.
(A) boundless
(B) protean
(C) haunting
(D) efficient
(E) amenable
(F) versatile
1
Installing scrubbers in smokestacks and switching to cleaner-burning fuel are the two
methods available to Northern Power for reducing harmful emissions from its plants.
Scrubbers will reduce harmful emissions more than cleaner-burning fuels will. Therefore, by
installing scrubbers, Northern Power will be doing the most that can be done to reduce
harmful emissions from its plants.
6. Which of the following is an assumption on which the argument depends?

(A) Switching to cleaner-burning fuel will not be more expensive than installing scrubbers.
(B) Northern Power can choose from among various kinds of scrubbers, some of which are
more effective than others.
(C) Northern Power is not necessarily committed to reducing harmful emissions from its
plants.
(D) Harmful emissions from Northern Power’s plants cannot be reduced more by using both
methods together than by the installation of scrubbers alone.
(E) Aside from harmful emissions from the smoke-stacks of its plants, the activities of
Northern Power do not cause significant air pollution.
Recently some scientists have concluded that meteorites found on Earth and long believed to
have a Martian origin might actually have been blasted free of Mars’s gravity by the impact
on Mars of other meteorites. This conclusion has led to another question: whether meteorite
impacts on Earth have similarly driven rocks from this planet to Mars.
According to astronomer S. A. Phinney, kicking a rock hard enough to free it from
Earth’s gravity would require a meteorite capable of making a crater more than 60 miles
across. Moreover, even if Earth rocks were freed by meteorite impact, Mars’s orbit is much
larger than Earth’s, so Phinney estimates that the probability of these rocks hitting Mars is
about one-tenth as great as that of Mars’s rocks hitting Earth. To demonstrate this estimate,
Phinney used a computer to calculate where 1,000 hypothetical particles would go if ejected
from Earth in random directions. He found that 17 of the 1,000 particles would hit Mars.
7. The passage is primarily concerned with
(A) presenting an argument to support a particular hypothesis
(B) suggesting an answer to a theoretical question
(C) questioning the assumptions of a research project
(D) criticizing experimental results
(E) explaining the origin of certain scientific data
8. According to the passage, which of the following events may have initiated the
process that led to the presence on Earth of meteorites from Mars?
(A) A meteorite struck the Earth with tremendous velocity.
(B) A meteorite collided with Mars.
(C) Approximately 1,000 rocks were ejected from Mars.
(D) The orbits of Earth and Mars brought the planets to their closest points.
(E) Rocks from a meteorite impact broke free of Earth’s gravity.
2
9. The passage suggests that which of the following is true concerning the probability
that a rock, if ejected from Mars, will hit the Earth?
(A) The probability is increased when particles are ejected from Mars in random
directions.
(B) The probability is increased by the presence of large craters on the surface of Mars.
(C) The probability is decreased when Mars’s orbit brings the planet close to Earth.
(D) The probability is greater than the probability that a rock from Earth will hit Mars.
(E) The probability is less than the probability that a rock from Earth will escape Earth’s
gravity.
10. Which of the following, if true, would cast most doubt on Phinney’s estimate of the
probability of Earth rocks hitting Mars?
(A) Rather than going in random directions, about 25 percent of all particles ejected
from Earth go in the same direction into space.
(B) Approximately 100 meteorites large enough to make a noticeable crater hit the Earth
each year.
(C) No rocks of Earth origin have been detected on Mars.
(D) The velocity of rocks escaping from Earth’s gravity is lower than the velocity of
meteorites hitting the Earth.
(E) No craters more than 60 miles across have been found on Mars.
Answer key:
1. D 2. E 3. C/D 4. A/E/I 5. B/F 6. D 7. B 8. B 9. D 10.
A

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Practice Set 5

Select TWO answer choices.

6. Which of the following is an assumption on which the argument depends?

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