1. Directions

Each passage or pair of passages below is followed by a number of questions. After reading each passage or pair, choose the best answer to each question based on what is stated or implied in the passage or passages and in any accompanying graphics (such as a table or graph).

Questions 1 through 10 are based on the following passage.

This passage is adapted from Saki, “The SchartzMetterklume Method.” Originally published in 1911.

Lady Carlotta stepped out on to the platform of the small wayside station and took a turn or two up and down its uninteresting length, to kill time till the train should be pleased to proceed on its way. Then, in the roadway beyond, she saw a horse struggling with a more than ample load, and a carter of the sort that seems to bear a sullen hatred against the animal that helps him to earn a living. Lady Carlotta promptly betook her to the roadway, and put rather a different complexion on the struggle. Certain of her acquaintances were wont to give her plentiful admonition as to the undesirability of interfering on behalf of a distressed animal, such interference being “none of her business.” Only once had she put the doctrine of non-interference into practice, when one of its most eloquent exponents had been besieged for nearly three hours in a small and extremely uncomfortable maytree by an angry boarpig, while Lady Carlotta, on the other side of the fence, had proceeded with the watercolour sketch she was engaged on, and refused to interfere between the boar and his prisoner. It is to be feared that she lost the friendship of the ultimately rescued lady. On this occasion she merely lost the train, which gave way to the first sign of impatience it had shown throughout the journey, and steamed off without her. She bore the desertion with philosophical indifference; her friends and relations were thoroughly well used to the fact of her luggage arriving without her. She wired a vague non-committal message to her destination to say that she was coming on “by another train.” Before she had time to think what her next move might be she was confronted by an imposingly attired lady, who seemed to be taking a prolonged mental inventory of her clothes and looks.

“You must be Miss Hope, the governess I’ve come to meet,” said the apparition, in a tone that admitted of very little argument.

“Very well, if I must I must,” said Lady Carlotta to herself with dangerous meekness.

“I am Mrs. Quabarl,” continued the lady; “and where, pray, is your luggage?”

“It’s gone astray,” said the alleged governess, falling in with the excellent rule of life that the absent are always to blame; the luggage had, in point of fact, behaved with perfect correctitude. “I’ve just telegraphed about it,” she added, with a nearer approach to truth.

“How provoking,” said Mrs. Quabarl; “these railway companies are so careless. However, my maid can lend you things for the night,” and she led the way to her car.

During the drive to the Quabarl mansion Lady Carlotta was impressively introduced to the nature of the charge that had been thrust upon her; she learned that Claude and Wilfrid were delicate, sensitive young people, that Irene had the artistic temperament highly developed, and that Viola was something or other else of a mould equally commonplace among children of that class and type in the twentieth century.

“I wish them not only to be TAUGHT,” said Mrs. Quabarl, “but INTERESTED in what they learn. In their history lessons, for instance, you must try to make them feel that they are being introduced to the lifestories of men and women who really lived, not merely committing a mass of names and dates to memory. French, of course, I shall expect you to talk at mealtimes several days in the week.”

“I shall talk French four days of the week and Russian in the remaining three.”

“Russian? My dear Miss Hope, no one in the house speaks or understands Russian.”

“That will not embarrass me in the least,” said Lady Carlotta coldly.

Mrs. Quabarl, to use a colloquial expression, was knocked off her perch. She was one of those imperfectly self-assured individuals who are magnificent and autocratic as long as they are not seriously opposed. The least show of unexpected resistance goes a long way towards rendering them cowed and apologetic. When the new governess failed to express wondering admiration of the large newlypurchased and expensive car, and lightly alluded to the superior advantages of one or two makes which had just been put on the market, the discomfiture of her patroness became almost abject. Her feelings were those which might have animated a general of ancient warfaring days, on beholding his heaviest battleelephant ignominiously driven off the field by slingers and javelin throwers.

Question 1.

Which choice best summarizes the passage?

2. In sentence 1 of paragraph 1, “turn” most nearly means

3. The passage most clearly implies that other people regarded Lady Carlotta as

4. Which choice provides the best evidence for the answer to question 3?

5. The description of how Lady Carlotta “put the doctrine of noninterference into practice” mainly serves to

6. In sentence 1 of paragraph 7, “charge” most nearly means

7. The narrator indicates that Claude, Wilfrid, Irene, and Viola are

8. The narrator implies that Mrs. Quabarl favors a form of education that emphasizes

9. As presented in the passage, Mrs. Quabarl is best described as

10. Which choice provides the best evidence for the answer to question 9?

11. Questions 11 through 20 are based on the following passage and supplementary material.

This passage is adapted from Taras Grescoe, Straphanger: Saving Our Cities and Ourselves from the Automobile. ©2012 by Taras Grescoe.

Though there are 600 million cars on the planet, and counting, there are also seven billion people, which means that for the vast majority of us getting around involves taking buses, ferryboats, commuter trains, streetcars, and subways. In other words, traveling to work, school, or the market means being a straphanger: somebody who, by choice or necessity, relies on public transport, rather than a privately owned automobile.

Half the population of New York, Toronto, and London do not own cars. Public transport is how most of the people of Asia and Africa, the world’s most populous continents, travel. Every day, subway systems carry 155 million passengers, thirtyfour times the number carried by all the world’s airplanes, and the global public transport market is now valued at $428 billion annually. A century and a half after the invention of the internal combustion engine, private car ownership is still an anomaly.

And yet public transportation, in many minds, is the opposite of glamour—a squalid last resort for those with one too many impaired driving charges, too poor to afford insurance, or too decrepit to get behind the wheel of a car. In much of North America, they are right: taking transit is a depressing experience. Anybody who has waited far too long on a street corner for the privilege of boarding a lurching, overcrowded bus, or wrestled luggage onto subways and shuttles to get to a big city airport, knows that transit on this continent tends to be underfunded, illmaintained, and illplanned. Given the opportunity, who wouldn’t drive? Hopping in a car almost always gets you to your destination more quickly.

It doesn’t have to be like this. Done right, public transport can be faster, more comfortable, and cheaper than the private automobile. In Shanghai, Germanmade magnetic levitation trains skim over elevated tracks at 266 miles an hour, whisking people to the airport at a third of the speed of sound. In provincial French towns, electricpowered streetcars run silently on rubber tires, sliding through narrow streets along a single guide rail set into cobblestones. From Spain to Sweden, WiFi equipped high-speed trains seamlessly connect with highly ramified metro networks, allowing commuters to work on laptops as they prepare for sameday meetings in once distant capital cities. In Latin America, China, and India, working people board fastloading buses that move like subway trains along dedicated busways, leaving the sedans and S U V s of the rich mired in dawntodusk traffic jams. And some cities have transformed their streets into cyclepath freeways, making giant strides in public health and safety and the sheer livability of their neighborhoods—in the process turning the workaday bicycle into a viable form of mass transit.

If you credit the demographers, this transit trend has legs. The “Millennials,” who reached adulthood around the turn of the century and now outnumber baby boomers, tend to favor cities over suburbs, and are far more willing than their parents to ride buses and subways. Part of the reason is their ease with iPads, MP3 players, Kindles, and smartphones: you can get some serious texting done when you’re not driving, and earbuds offer effective insulation from all but the most extreme commuting annoyances. Even though there are more teenagers in the country than ever, only ten million have a driver’s license (versus twelve million a generation ago). Baby boomers may have been raised in Leave It to Beaver suburbs, but as they retire, a significant contingent is favoring older cities and compact towns where they have the option of walking and riding bikes. Seniors, too, are more likely to use transit, and by 2025, there will be 64 million Americans over the age of sixtyfive. Already, dwellings in older neighborhoods in Washington, D.C., Atlanta, and Denver, especially those near light-rail or subway stations, are commanding enormous price premiums over suburban homes. The experience of European and Asian cities shows that if you make buses, subways, and trains convenient, comfortable, fast, and safe, a surprisingly large percentage of citizens will opt to ride rather than drive.

Figure 1.

Begin skippable figure description.

The figure presents a circle graph titled “Primary Occupation of Public Transportation Passengers in U S Cities.” The graph is divided into 6 different sectors. The respective percents are labeled, clockwise, as: unemployed, 6.4 percent; student, 10.7 percent; homemaker, 2.0 percent; retired, 6.7 percent; other, 2.2 percent; and employed outside the home, 72 percent. Each sector has its own percent label.

End skippable figure description.

Figure 2.

Begin skippable figure description.

The figure presents a circle graph titled “Purpose of Public Transportation Trips in U S Cities.” The graph is divided into 7 different sectors. The respective percents are labeled, clockwise, as: work, 59.1 percent; school, 10.6 percent; social, 6.8 percent; shopping/dining, 8.5 percent; medical/dental, 3.0 percent; personal business, 6.3 percent; and other, 5.7 percent.

End skippable figure description.

Source: Figure 1 and figure 2 are adapted from the American Public Transportation Association, “A Profile of Public Transportation Passenger Demographics and Travel Characteristics Reported in OnBoard Surveys.” ©2007 by American Public Transportation Association

Question 11.

What function does the third paragraph serve in the passage as a whole?

12. Which choice does the author explicitly cite as an advantage of automobile travel in North America?

13. Which choice provides the best evidence for the answer to question 12?

14. The central idea of the fourth paragraph is that

15. Which choice provides the best evidence for the answer to question 14?

16. As used in sentence 1 of paragraph 5, “credit” most nearly means

17. As used in sentence 2 of paragraph 5, “favor” most nearly means

18. Which choice best supports the conclusion that public transportation is compatible with the use of personal electronic devices?

19. Which choice is supported by the data in the first figure?

20. Taken together, the two figures suggest that most people who use public transportation

21. Questions 21 through 30 are based on the following passage.

This passage is adapted from Thor Hanson, Feathers. ©2011 by Thor Hanson. Scientists have long debated how the ancestors of birds evolved the ability to fly. The ground-up theory assumes they were fleet-footed ground dwellers that captured prey by leaping and flapping their upper limbs. The tree-down theory assumes they were tree climbers that leapt and glided among branches.

At field sites around the world, Ken Dial saw a pattern in how young pheasants, quail, tinamous, and other ground birds ran along behind their parents. “They jumped up like popcorn,” he said, describing how they would flap their half-formed wings and take short hops into the air. So when a group of graduate students challenged him to come up with new data on the ageold ground-up-tree-down debate, he designed a project to see what clues might lie in how baby game birds learned to fly.

Ken settled on the Chukar Partridge as a model species, but he might not have made his discovery without a key piece of advice from the local rancher in Montana who was supplying him with birds. When the cowboy stopped by to see how things were going, Ken showed him his nice, tidy laboratory setup and explained how the birds’ first hops and flights would be measured. The rancher was incredulous. “He took one look and said, in pretty colorful language, ‘What are those birds doing on the ground? They hate to be on the ground! Give them something to climb on!’ ” At first it seemed unnatural—ground birds don’t like the ground? But as he thought about it Ken realized that all the species he’d watched in the wild preferred to rest on ledges, low branches, or other elevated perches where they were safe from predators. They really only used the ground for feeding and traveling. So he brought in some hay bales for the Chukars to perch on and then left his son in charge of feeding and data collection while he went away on a short work trip.

Barely a teenager at the time, young Terry Dial was visibly upset when his father got back. “I asked him how it went,” Ken recalled, “and he said, ‘Terrible! The birds are cheating!’ ” Instead of flying up to their perches, the baby Chukars were using their legs. Time and again Terry had watched them run right up the side of a hay bale, flapping all the while. Ken dashed out to see for himself, and that was the “aha” moment. “The birds were using their wings and legs cooperatively,” he told me, and that single observation opened up a world of possibilities.

Working together with Terry (who has since gone on to study animal locomotion), Ken came up with a series of ingenious experiments, filming the birds as they raced up textured ramps tilted at increasing angles. As the incline increased, the partridges began to flap, but they angled their wings differently from birds in flight. They aimed their flapping down and backward, using the force not for lift but to keep their feet firmly pressed against the ramp. “It’s like the spoiler on the back of a race car,” he explained, which is a very apt analogy. In Formula One racing, spoilers are the big aerodynamic fins that push the cars downward as they speed along, increasing traction and handling. The birds were doing the very same thing with their wings to help them scramble up otherwise impossible slopes.

Ken called the technique W A I R, for wingassisted incline running, and went on to document it in a wide range of species. It not only allowed young birds to climb vertical surfaces within the first few weeks of life but also gave adults an energyefficient alternative to flying. In the Chukar experiments, adults regularly used W A I R to ascend ramps steeper than 90 degrees, essentially running up the wall and onto the ceiling.

In an evolutionary context, W A I R takes on surprising explanatory powers. With one fell swoop, the Dials came up with a viable origin for the flapping flight stroke of birds (something gliding animals don’t do and thus a shortcoming of the tree-down theory) and an aerodynamic function for half-formed wings (one of the main drawbacks to the ground-up hypothesis).

Question 21.

Which choice best reflects the overall sequence of events in the passage?

22. As used in sentence 3 of paragraph 1, “challenged” most nearly means

23. Which statement best captures Ken Dial’s central assumption in setting up his research?

24. Which choice provides the best evidence for the answer to question 23?

25. In the second paragraph, the incident involving the local rancher mainly serves to

26. After Ken Dial had his “‘aha’ moment” (sentence 5 of paragraph 3), he

27. The passage identifies which of the following as a factor that facilitated the baby Chukars’ traction on steep ramps?

28. As used in sentence 1 of paragraph 5, “document” most nearly means

29. What can reasonably be inferred about gliding animals from the passage?

30. Which choice provides the best evidence for the answer to question 29?

31. Questions 31 through 41 are based on the following two passages.

Passage 1 is adapted from Talleyrand et al., Report on Public Instruction. Originally published in 1791. Passage 2 is adapted from Mary Wollstonecraft, A Vindication of the Rights of Woman. Originally published in 1792. Talleyrand was a French diplomat; the Report was a plan for national education. Wollstonecraft, a British novelist and political writer, wrote Vindication in response to Talleyrand.

Passage 1

That half the human race is excluded by the other half from any participation in government; that they are native by birth but foreign by law in the very land where they were born; and that they are propertyowners yet have no direct influence or representation: are all political phenomena apparently impossible to explain on abstract principle. But on another level of ideas, the question changes and may be easily resolved. The purpose of all these institutions must be the happiness of the greatest number. Everything that leads us farther from this purpose is in error; everything that brings us closer is truth. If the exclusion from public employments decreed against women leads to a greater sum of mutual happiness for the two sexes, then this becomes a law that all Societies have been compelled to acknowledge and sanction.

Any other ambition would be a reversal of our primary destinies; and it will never be in women’s interest to change the assignment they have received.

It seems to us incontestable that our common happiness, above all that of women, requires that they never aspire to the exercise of political rights and functions. Here we must seek their interests in the wishes of nature. Is it not apparent, that their delicate constitutions, their peaceful inclinations, and the many duties of motherhood, set them apart from strenuous habits and onerous duties, and summon them to gentle occupations and the cares of the home? And is it not evident that the great conserving principle of Societies, which makes the division of powers a source of harmony, has been expressed and revealed by nature itself, when it divided the functions of the two sexes in so obviously distinct a manner? This is sufficient; we need not invoke principles that are inapplicable to the question. Let us not make rivals of life’s companions. You must, you truly must allow the persistence of a union that no interest, no rivalry, can possibly undo. Understand that the good of all demands this of you.

Passage 2

Contending for the rights of woman, my main argument is built on this simple principle, that if she be not prepared by education to become the companion of man, she will stop the progress of knowledge and virtue; for truth must be common to all, or it will be inefficacious with respect to its influence on general practice. And how can woman be expected to cooperate unless she know why she ought to be virtuous? unless freedom strengthen her reason till she comprehend her duty, and see in what manner it is connected with her real good? If children are to be educated to understand the true principle of patriotism, their mother must be a patriot; and the love of mankind, from which an orderly train of virtues spring, can only be produced by considering the moral and civil interest of mankind; but the education and situation of woman, at present, shuts her out from such investigations. . . .

Consider, sir, dispassionately, these observations—for a glimpse of this truth seemed to open before you when you observed, “that to see one half of the human race excluded by the other from all participation of government, was a political phenomenon that, according to abstract principles, it was impossible to explain.” If so, on what does your constitution rest? If the abstract rights of man will bear discussion and explanation, those of woman, by a parity of reasoning, will not shrink from the same test: though a different opinion prevails in this country, built on the very arguments which you use to justify the oppression of woman—prescription.

Consider—I address you as a legislator—whether, when men contend for their freedom, and to be allowed to judge for themselves respecting their own happiness, it be not inconsistent and unjust to subjugate women, even though you firmly believe that you are acting in the manner best calculated to promote their happiness? Who made man the exclusive judge, if woman partake with him the gift of reason?

In this style, argue tyrants of every denomination, from the weak king to the weak father of a family; they are all eager to crush reason; yet always assert that they usurp its throne only to be useful. Do you not act a similar part, when you force all women, by denying them civil and political rights, to remain immured in their families groping in the dark?

Question 31.

As used in sentence 1, paragraph 3 of passage 1, “common” most nearly means

32. It can be inferred that the authors of Passage 1 believe that running a household and raising children

33. Which choice provides the best evidence for the answer to question 32?

34. According to the author of Passage 2, in order for society to progress, women must

35. As used in sentence 2, paragraph 1 of passage 2, “reason” most nearly means

36. In Passage 2, the author claims that freedoms granted by society’s leaders have

37. Which choice provides the best evidence for the answer to question 36?

38. In sentence 1 of paragraph 2, the author of Passage 2 refers to a statement made in Passage 1 in order to

39. Which best describes the overall relationship between Passage 1 and Passage 2?

40. The authors of both passages would most likely agree with which of the following statements about women in the eighteenth century?

41. How would the authors of Passage 1 most likely respond to the points made in the final paragraph of Passage 2?

42. Questions 42 through 52 are based on the following passage and supplementary material.

This passage is adapted from Richard J. Sharpe and Lisa Heyden, “Honey Bee Colony Collapse Disorder is Possibly Caused by a Dietary Pyrethrum Deficiency.” ©2009 by Elsevier Ltd. Colony collapse disorder is characterized by the disappearance of adult worker bees from hives.

Honey bees are hosts to the pathogenic large ectoparasitic mite Varroa destructor (Varroa mites). These mites feed on bee hemolymph (blood) and can kill bees directly or by increasing their susceptibility to secondary infection with fungi, bacteria or viruses. Little is known about the natural defenses that keep the mite infections under control.

Pyrethrums are a group of flowering plants which include Chrysanthemum coccineum, Chrysanthemum cinerariifolium, Chrysanthemum marschalli, and related species. These plants produce potent insecticides with antimite activity. The naturally occurring insecticides are known as pyrethrums. A synonym for the naturally occurring pyrethrums is pyrethrin and synthetic analogues of pyrethrums are known as pyrethroids. In fact, the human mite infestation known as scabies (Sarcoptes scabiei) is treated with a topical pyrethrum cream.

We suspect that the bees of commercial bee colonies which are fed monocrops are nutritionally deficient. In particular, we postulate that the problem is a diet deficient in antimite toxins: pyrethrums, and possibly other nutrients which are inherent in such plants. Without, at least, intermittent feeding on the pyrethrum producing plants, bee colonies are susceptible to mite infestations which can become fatal either directly or due to a secondary infection of immunocompromised or nutritionally deficient bees. This secondary infection can be viral, bacterial or fungal and may be due to one or more pathogens. In addition, immunocompromised or nutritionally deficient bees may be further weakened when commercially produced insecticides are introduced into their hives by bee keepers in an effort to fight mite infestation. We further postulate that the proper dosage necessary to prevent mite infestation may be better left to the bees, who may seek out or avoid pyrethrum containing plants depending on the amount necessary to defend against mites and the amount already consumed by the bees, which in higher doses could be potentially toxic to them.

This hypothesis can best be tested by a trial wherein a small number of commercial honey bee colonies are offered a number of pyrethrum producing plants, as well as a typical bee food source such as clover, while controls are offered only the clover. Mites could then be introduced to each hive with note made as to the choice of the bees, and the effects of the mite parasites on the experimental colonies versus control colonies.

It might be beneficial to test wildtype honey bee colonies in this manner as well, in case there could be some genetic difference between them that affects the bees’ preferences for pyrethrum producing flowers.

Pathogen Occurrence in Honey Bee Colonies With and Without Colony Collapse Disorder

Adapted from Diana L. CoxFoster et al., “A Metagenomic Survey of Microbes in Honey Bee Collapse Disorder.” ©2007 by American Association for the Advancement of Science.

The preceding table shows, for colonies with colony collapse disorder and for colonies without colony collapse disorder, the percent of colonies having honey bees infected by each of four pathogens and by all four pathogens together.

Question 42.

How do the words “can,” “may,” and “could” in the third paragraph help establish the tone of the paragraph?

43. In sentence 1 of paragraph 4, the authors state that a certain hypothesis “can best be tested by a trial.” Based on the passage, which of the following is a hypothesis the authors suggest be tested in a trial?

44. Which choice provides the best evidence for the answer to question 43?

45. The passage most strongly suggests that beekeepers’ attempts to fight mite infestations with commercially produced insecticides have what unintentional effect?

46. Which choice provides the best evidence for the answer to question 45?

47. As used in sentence 6 of paragraph 3, “postulate” most nearly means to

48. The main purpose of the fourth paragraph is to

49. An unstated assumption made by the authors about clover is that the plants

50. Based on data in the table, in what percent of colonies with colony collapse disorder were the honeybees infected by all four pathogens?

51. Based on data in the table, which of the four pathogens infected the highest percentage of honeybee colonies without colony collapse disorder?

52. Do the data in the table provide support for the authors’ claim that infection with varroa mites increases a honeybee’s susceptibility to secondary infections?

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