Directions: Read each group of sentences and then select the best answer.

A mild stimulant, such as caffeine, appears to change a person's ability to maintain attention and concentration.

1     This sentence expresses what type of relationship?

(A) cause-effect

(B) time order

(C) comparison/contrast

(D) classification

Graphics make it easy to see differences and changes. As a result, trends and patterns become clearer and more noticeable.

2     These sentences go together because

(A) they are approximately the same length.

(B) an example is given.

(C) there is a cause-effect relationship.

(D) the second sentence describes the first.

What is considered abnormal or deviant in one culture may be viewed as quite normal and acceptable in another. One simple example is how people of various cultures dress.

3     The second sentence

(A) restates the idea in the first.

(B) compares abnormal and normal behavior.

(C) associates deviant behavior with specific cultures.

(D) illustrates the first.

A table displays facts, figures, statistics, and other data in a condensed orderly sequence for convenience of reference and clarity.

4     The first part of the sentence

(A) shows time order or sequence.

(B) lists functions of a table.

(C) illustrates the importance of reading tables accurately.

(D) compares the elements of a table.

Directions: Read each paragraph and then select the best answer.

Ethnomusicology is the comparative study of the musics of the world and of music as an aspect of culture and society. The field of ethnomusicology thus unites music and anthropology. The music side involves the study and analysis of the music itself and the instruments used to create it. The anthropology side views music as a way to explore a culture, to determine the role–historic and contemporary–that music plays in that society, and the specific social and cultural features that influence how music is created and performed.

5     The writer defines ethnomusicology as

(A) different genres of music.

(B) the exploration of different cultures.

(C) social and cultural influences on society.

(D) a union of music and anthropology.

Today American women and men have similar levels of education. Although this might suggest that full equality has been achieved in education, some notable differences remain. First, the highest levels of education (such as Ph.D.s) are dominated by men. Second, fields of study in higher education are gender labeled, and female and male students are segregated by major. Women cluster in the humanities, health sciences, and education while men cluster in the physical sciences. Third, the highest levels within a field tend to be male dominated. For instance, while men were awarded 49 percent of the doctoral degrees in international relations, they received 79 percent of the doctoral degrees in that field. A similar pattern holds for mathematics. The fields of study chosen by women seem to reflect stereotyped ideas about women's and men's interests and abilities; that is, women are nurturant and emotional and more highly skilled in verbal areas, whereas men are rational and more highly skilled in mathematics. Research shows that such differences are quite small, and not always in the expected direction.

6     The main idea of this paragraph is that

(A) men and women compete for equality in the workplace.

(B) inequity exists in education between men and women.

(C) certain fields are better suited for men than for women.

(D) more women should gravitate towards male dominated areas.

If you want to get ahead in an organization, it is important to do a good job. But it is also important that people like you. If people like you, they will forgive just about anything you do wrong. If they don't like you, you can do everything right and it will not matter. Many hardworking talented people have been bypassed for promotion and fired simply because their boss or some other high–level manager didn't like them. In fact, when Henry Ford fired Lee Iacocca, he used only four words to explain his decision: "I don't like you."

7     A conclusion that can be drawn from this paragraph is that

(A) it is just as important to be well-liked as to do a good job.

(B) people who do a good job usually are not liked by their coworkers.

(C) others at work are unforgiving of mistakes, so you should do your job carefully.

(D) if you are liked by others, you will probably work harder on the job.

As the former gold–medal–winning Olympic athletes entered the arena, the crowd quieted down into a silence and respect worthy of a great cathedral. While each athlete came forward to receive his or her special honor, we listened in awe to their inspiring tales of courage and dedication. Such deep emotion was stirred within us by these remarkable individuals!

8     The author writes in a tone that is

(A) objective.

(B) educational.

(C) reverent.

(D) entertaining.

The Supreme Court meets from the first Monday in October (set by statute) until late June or early July, depending on the press of business. Let's see how it goes about deciding cases.

9     This passage will probably focus on

(A) how the Supreme Court functions within a code of secrecy.

(B) the procedure for jury selection.

(C) information about our legal justice system.

(D) Supreme Court operations.

The word thesaurus is derived from the Greek thesaurus, meaning "treasure or treasury." A thesaurus is a "treasury" of related words. It is a dictionary of synonyms and antonyms presented alphabetically in categories. Unlike a dictionary, a thesaurus does not give the definition, pronunciation, or etymology of a word. The purpose of a thesaurus is to enable you to be more precise in the words that you use so that you can express your thoughts exactly. It also enables you to choose alternate words so that you don't just repeat the same word over and over again. Many students find a thesaurus to be an invaluable resource in helping them select just the right word to use in an essay or homework assignment.

10     Essentially a thesaurus is

(A) like a dictionary.

(B) a collection of synonyms and antonyms.

(C) an alphabetical listing of word origins.

(D) derived from essay or homework assignments.

According to Wayne Payne, author of Understanding Your Health, some 60 million Americans today are using an almost endless variety of vitamins, minerals, and other supplements in a quest for improved health. These products are being consumed in record quantities, despite the fact that they are not subject to Food and Drug Administration (FDA) requirements for safety and effectiveness. Thus, consumers may not only be wasting billions of dollars on unproven, even useless health care products; they may also be causing themselves serious harm.

11     The writer implies

(A) vitamins, minerals, and supplements may not be as beneficial as people think.

(B) the FDA should approve certain health care products whose effectiveness is currently unproven.

(C) Americans spend too much money in the quest for improved health.

(D) FDA requirements for safety and effectiveness should become more stringent.

Greenpeace is an organization dedicated to the preservation of the sea and its great mammals, notably whales, dolphins, and seals. Its ethic is nonviolent but its aggressiveness in protecting our oceans and the life in them is becoming legendary. In their roving ship, the Rainbow Warrior, Greenpeace volunteers have relentlessly hounded the profiteering ships of any nation harming the resources Greenpeace deems to be the property of the world community. Whales, they believe, belong to us all and have a right to exist no matter what the demand for shoe–horns, cosmetics, and machine oil.

12     In this description of Greenpeace, the writer reveals

(A) objectivity about protecting endangered animals and their habitats.

(B) bias towards profiteering and capitalizing upon efforts to meet consumer demand for animal products.

(C) criticism of volunteers who unwittingly deplete Greenpeace resources in selfish pursuits.

(D) a favorable attitude toward the organization and a negative one toward whale hunters.

We can measure the radioactivity of plants and animals today and compare this with the radioactivity of ancient organic matter. If we extract a small but precise quantity of carbon from an ancient wooden ax handle, for example, and find it has one–half as much radioactivity as an equal quantity of carbon extracted from a living tree, then the old wood must have come from a tree that was cut down or made from a log that died 5,730 years ago. In this way, we can probe into the past as much as 50,000 years to find out such things as the age of ancient civilizations or the times of the ice ages that covered the earth.

13     The main point of the paragraph is that

(A) there is greater radioactivity found in organic matter today than long ago.

(B) ancient civilizations used a process involving radioactivity to learn about their ancestors.

(C) the procedure of measuring radioactivity can be used to learn about the past.

(D) radioactivity is dangerous to plants and animals if not used for research purposes.

In contrast to the solemn attitude toward death so prevalent in the United States, a familiar and even ironic attitude is more common among Mexicans and Mexican Americans. In the Mexican worldview, death is another phase of life and those who have passed into it remain accessible. Ancestors are not forever lost, nor is the past dead. This sense of continuity has its roots in the culture of the Aztecs, for whom regeneration was a central theme. When the Spanish came to Mexico in the sixteenth century, their beliefs about death, along with such symbols as skulls and skeletons, were absorbed into the native culture.

14     What does the paragraph tell us about views on death according to Mexican culture?

(A) Death is the continuation of life.

(B) Mexicans fear death more than Americans do.

(C) Ancestors are lost forever but not forgotten.

(D) The Aztecs generated this solemn attitude toward death.

Smoking interferes with your studying and your concentration. It's a disaster for your lungs, all of your body systems, your skin and your other organs, your immune system, and your brain. It's an insult you commit against yourself. (You already know the specific health risks, so I won't bore you with those. And I won't even mention chewing tobacco and its carcinogenic effects on the mouth, the throat, and the rest of the body.) If you don't smoke, that's terrific. Keep on not smoking. If you do smoke, make the decision to quit. I know it's a tough habit to break. Cigarette smoking is considered more addictive than cocaine, but if you want to quit, you can. Do you really want to go through life with cigarettes controlling you?

15     This paragraph is written in order to

(A) relay a personal example about the hazards of smoking.

(B) convince smokers to quit the habit.

(C) argue the health risks resulting from cigarette smoking.

(D) compare chewing tobacco, cocaine, and cigarettes.

We convey a great deal about how we feel in our facial expressions, but this can be a real problem when people of different cultures interpret facial expressions differently. Curious about cultural differences, researchers Tang and Shioiri decided to experiment by showing medical students in Japan and the United States photos of seven basic emotions: anger, contempt, disgust, fear, happiness, sadness, and surprise. They discovered that the two groups agreed on only one facial expression: surprise. About 96 percent on both sides came to that conclusion.

16     According to the paragraph,

(A) body language emphasizes cultural differences more than our facial expressions.

(B) Japanese and United States citizens express the seven basic emotions similarly.

(C) medical students in Japan and the United States agreed on only the facial expression of surprise.

(D) both groups in the experiment showed the emotion of surprise.

In Phoenix, Arizona a law was passed banning the sale of spray paint to minors. In addition, the Phoenix Police department created a hotline for reporting graffiti activity, and community groups and blockwatchers painted over graffiti in their neighborhoods weekly. The measures appear to have worked. Of the original 100 "crews" of graffiti artists, it is estimated that only about 10 crews remain.

17     The paragraph implies that

(A) Phoenix has the lowest incidence of graffiti.

(B) the main use of spray paint in Phoenix is for graffiti art.

(C) graffiti crews across the nation are on the rise.

(D) communities can work together to eradicate graffiti.

The study of prehistoric humans is, of necessity, the study of their fossil remains. To begin to understand who our ancestors were and what they were like, we must be able to interpret the fragments of them that are coming to the surface in increasing numbers. Given fairly reliable methods to determine their age, we can now turn with more confidence to primate fossils for an answer to the all–important question: How do we tell monkeys, apes, and humans apart? For present–day species this is no problem; all have evolved sufficiently so that they no longer resemble one another. But since they all have a common ancestor, the farther back we go in time, the more similar their fossils begin to look. There finally comes a point when they are indistinguishable. The construction of a primate fossil family tree is essential if we are ever going to discover the line of descent from early hominid to modern human.

18     The passage is mainly about

(A) how the study of fossils enables us to study prehistoric man.

(B) difficulty determining similarity between fossil remains of humans.

(C) using fossils to distinguish stages in human development.

(D) a contemporary way to tell monkeys, apes, and humans apart.

Not everyone can end up paired with someone stunningly attractive. So how do people pair off? Judging from research by Bernard Murstein and others, they pair off with people who are about as attractive as they are. Several studies have found a strong correspondence between the attractiveness of husbands and wives, of dating partners, and even of those within particular fraternities. Experiments confirm this matching phenomenon. When choosing whom to approach in social settings, knowing the other is free to say yes or no, people usually approach someone whose attractiveness roughly matches their own.

19     From this paragraph the reader may infer that

(A) attractiveness is really important in the early stages of dating.

(B) men and women commonly fail at attempting to seek the right physical match.

(C) people tend to pair themselves with others who are similarly attractive.

(D) the matching phenomenon does not occur in most social settings.

Animals are more than ever a test of our character, of mankind's capacity for empathy and for decent, honorable conduct and faithful stewardship. We are called to treat them with kindness, not because they have rights or power or some claim to equality, but in a sense because they don’t; because they all stand unequal and powerless before us. Animals are so easily overlooked, their interests so easily brushed aside. Whenever we humans enter their world, from our farms to the local animal shelter to the African savanna, we enter as lords of the earth bearing strange powers of terror and mercy alike.

20     The writer's purpose is to

(A) convey empathy toward animals.

(B) urge pet owners to treat animals kindly.

(C) enlighten us about inequities involving animals.

(D) challenge people to become animal rights activists.