GRE General Test Practice Questions - August 2024 PDF

## ETS GRE® General Test #### Section 2 of 5 | Question 1 of 12 00:17:54 Hide Time Select one entry for the blank. Fill the blank in the way that best completes the text. Some historians of science argue that chemistry had ___ scientific revolution in that seventeenth-century chemists failed to p...

## ETS GRE® General Test #### Section 2 of 5 | Question 1 of 12 00:17:54 Hide Time Select one entry for the blank. Fill the blank in the way that best completes the text. Some historians of science argue that chemistry had ___ scientific revolution in that seventeenth-century chemists failed to produce radical innovations parallel to those in other sciences at the time, and chemistry consequently matured later. * a mediated * an oblique * a postponed * an inadvertent * a surrogate Select one answer choice. #### Section 2 of 5 | Question 2 of 12 00:16:08 Hide Time For each blank select one entry from the corresponding column of choices. Fill all blanks in the way that best completes the text. Testing alternate versions of web pages in real time can make Internet-based companies (i) ____ some user preferences, but that does not necessarily make those companies (ii) ___ as 10,000 ongoing tweaks to the company web site do not add up to a fundamental change of direction when one is needed. | Blank (i) | Blank (ii) | |---|---| | severely constrained by | irresolute | | rapidly responsive to | transparent | | surprisingly indifferent to | agile | Select one entry from each column. #### Section 2 of 5 | Question 3 of 12 00:15:57 Hide Time For each blank select one entry from the corresponding column of choices. Fill all blanks in the way that best completes the text. The rural Renaissance villas were working buildings. The agricultural world they served is now gone. To see it you therefore have to (i) ___ it, but that can be aided by the nineteenth-century photographs taken just before the agricultural revolution destroyed the old order. Not that those photographs themselves are always completely (ii) ___: Virginia creeper growing up a Renaissance villa is a botanical anachronism and also (iii) ___ piece of planting (rats climb up the creepers and get at the grain stored in the attic). | Blank (i). | Blank (ii) | Blank (iii) | |---|---|---| | imagine | exhaustive | an ornamental | | improvise | undamaged | a foolish | | visit | germane | an imitative | Select one entry from each column. #### Section 2 of 5 | Question 4 of 12 00:13:51 Hide Time Questions 4 and 5 are based on this passage. Joan Acocella's *Willa Cather and the Politics of Criticism* is a gleaming, double-edged thing: both a brisk appreciation of Cather's artistic achievement and a devastating assault on modern Cather scholarship. It stems from a controversial article in which Acocella attacked contemporary academic critics for their misuse of Cather-in Acocella's view the only American novelist besides Henry James to rival Tolstoy and Flaubert for beauty of style and moral depth. The story Acocella's article told was one of noble articulation-Cather's poised, pared-down imaginative utterance-overwhelmed by academic jabber. Against the ideological cant and theoretical jargon of Cather scholars, Acocella presented her own cool, plain-speaking account of Cather's genius as a necessary (if lonely) rescue operation: she would save Cather from her critics. It can be inferred from the passage that Tolstoy and Flaubert are cited in connection with Acocella's view because according to Acocella * they, like Cather, were not appreciated by some critics * they each represented a literary alternative to Henry James * they provide a standard for gauging Cather's achievement * they each had an important stylistic influence on Cather * they were authors Cather eventually rejected Select one answer choice. #### Section 2 of 5 | Question 5 of 12 00:10:08 Hide Time Questions 4 and 5 are based on this passage. Joan Acocella's *Willa Cather and the Politics of Criticism* is a gleaming, double-edged thing: both a brisk appreciation of Cather's artistic achievement and a devastating assault on modern Cather scholarship. It stems from a controversial article in which Acocella attacked contemporary academic critics for their misuse of Cather-in Acocella's view the only American novelist besides Henry James to rival Tolstoy and Flaubert for beauty of style and moral depth. The story Acocella's article told was one of noble articulation-Cather's poised, pared-down imaginative utterance-overwhelmed by academic jabber. Against the ideological cant and theoretical jargon of Cather scholars, Acocella presented her own cool, plain-speaking account of Cather's genius as a necessary (if lonely) rescue operation: she would save Cather from her critics. Consider each of the choices separately and select all that apply. Which of the following can be inferred from the passage about Acocella's "cool, plain-speaking account"? * It is comparable in style to the works of Henry James. * It runs counter to the style adopted by Cather's critics. * It is a departure from Acocella's style in previous works. Select one or more answer choices. #### Section 2 of 5 | Question 6 of 12 00:09:33 Hide Time Select the two answer choices that, when used to complete the sentence, fit the meaning of the sentence as a whole and produce completed sentences that are alike in meaning. An abundance of nutrient-rich pollution in estuaries causes algae to ___ much as houseplants grow better when their soil contains added fertilizer. * abound * proliferate * stagnate * coalesce * collect * diversify Select two answer choices. #### Section 2 of 5 | Question 7 of 12 00:08:07 Hide Time Select the two answer choices that, when used to complete the sentence, fit the meaning of the sentence as a whole and produce completed sentences that are alike in meaning. Researchers comparing test subjects' abilities to interpret others' facial expressions found that while some expressions were easy to interpret, others were difficult because they were so ____ the person making the expression. * habitual for * customary for * peculiar to * idiosyncratic to * opaque to * inoffensive to Select two answer choices. #### Section 2 of 5 | Question 8 of 12 00:08:18 Hide Time Select the two answer choices that, when used to complete the sentence, fit the meaning of the sentence as a whole and produce completed sentences that are alike in meaning. Viruses are generally regarded as being on the far side of the demarcation between living and nonliving things, yet newly discovered giant viruses have longer genomes than some bacteria, whose status as living entities is ___ * elusive * incontrovertible * questionable * underestimated * indisputable * debatable Select two answer choices. #### Section 2 of 5 | Question 9 of 12 00:05:31 Hide Time Select the two answer choices that, when used to complete the sentence, fit the meaning of the sentence as a whole and produce completed sentences that are alike in meaning. The late nineteenth century saw a shift in the production of African American history writing as works by ___ authors came to be outnumbered by the publications of professional African American academics. * established * literary * lay * erudite * prominent * avocational Select two answer choices. #### Section 2 of 5 | Question 10 of 12 00:05:06 Hide Time Questions 10-12 are based on this passage. Although American jazz musician John Coltrane reportedly wrote other poems, the fact that to date only "A Love Supreme" has been made available to the public assures its literary significance: cast in relief as an accompaniment to his best-selling and most celebrated recording, the poem represents the sole authorized and generally accessible discursive component of what would otherwise be a wholly abstract body of creative output. This has had the effect of heightening its perceived significance for interpreting Coltrane's artistic motivations and his larger spiritual and intellectual interests. The effect seems to have been at least partly by design: by this point in his career, Coltrane was suspicious of any kind of verbal framing for his music, saying he preferred to put out his albums without liner notes and let the music "speak for itself." He declined, for instance, to be profiled in what became Spellman's widely discussed 1966 volume of jazz biography as social critique, *Four Lives in the Bebop Business*. In this respect he contrasted with, for instance, his contemporaries and labelmates Charles Mingus and Archie Shepp, older and younger representatives of the jazz avant-garde, respectively, who were much more apt to frame their music with expository text, and even to integrate the latter into the former. So the inclusion of the poem in the liner notes to *A Love Supreme*, a suite in four parts for Coltrane's working quartet, represented a deliberate and conspicuous gesture of The author mentions "Spellman's widely discussed 1966 volume" primarily to * compare Coltrane's influence to that of his peers * point to a source of misconception about Coltrane * cite a pattern to which Coltrane was an exception * comment on a change in Coltrane's musical style * evaluate the social impact of Coltrane's recordings Select one answer choice. #### Section 2 of 5 | Question 11 of 12 00:02:58 Hide Time Questions 10-12 are based on this passage. Although American jazz musician John Coltrane reportedly wrote other poems, the fact that to date only "A Love Supreme" has been made available to the public assures its literary significance: cast in relief as an accompaniment to his best-selling and most celebrated recording, the poem represents the sole authorized and generally accessible discursive component of what would otherwise be a wholly abstract body of creative output. This has had the effect of heightening its perceived significance for interpreting Coltrane's artistic motivations and his larger spiritual and intellectual interests. The effect seems to have been at least partly by design: by this point in his career, Coltrane was suspicious of any kind of verbal framing for his music, saying he preferred to put out his albums without liner notes and let the music "speak for itself." He declined, for instance, to be profiled in what became Spellman's widely discussed 1966 volume of jazz biography as social critique, *Four Lives in the Bebop Business*. In this respect he contrasted with, for instance, his contemporaries and labelmates Charles Mingus and Archie Shepp, older and younger representatives of the jazz avant-garde, respectively, who were much more apt to frame their music with expository text, and even to integrate the latter into the former. So the inclusion of the poem in the liner notes to *A Love Supreme*, a suite in four parts for Coltrane's working quartet, represented a deliberate and conspicuous gesture of The highlighted sentence includes evidence for which of the following statements? * Coltrane later regretted his decision not to be profiled in Spellman's book of jazz biography. * Recordings that included expository text were generally better received than those that did not. * Coltrane's reluctance to speak about his music did not represent a generational shift in jazz. * Members of the jazz avant-garde differed in their creative approach from other jazz musicians. * The inclusion of a poem with *A Love Supreme* was due to the influence of Coltrane's peers. Select one answer choice. #### Section 2 of 5 | Question 12 of 12 00:02:46 Hide Time Questions 10-12 are based on this passage. Although American jazz musician John Coltrane reportedly wrote other poems, the fact that to date only "A Love Supreme" has been made available to the public assures its literary significance: cast in relief as an accompaniment to his best-selling and most celebrated recording, the poem represents the sole authorized and generally accessible discursive component of what would otherwise be a wholly abstract body of creative output. This has had the effect of heightening its perceived significance for interpreting Coltrane's artistic motivations and his larger spiritual and intellectual interests. The effect seems to have been at least partly by design: by this point in his career, Coltrane was suspicious of any kind of verbal framing for his music, saying he preferred to put out his albums without liner notes and let the music "speak for itself." He declined, for instance, to be profiled in what became Spellman's widely discussed 1966 volume of jazz biography as social critique, *Four Lives in the Bebop Business*. In this respect he contrasted with, for instance, his contemporaries and labelmates Charles Mingus and Archie Shepp, older and younger representatives of the jazz avant-garde, respectively, who were much more apt to frame their music with expository text, and even to integrate the latter into the former. So the inclusion of the poem in the liner notes to *A Love Supreme*, a suite in four parts for Coltrane's working quartet, represented a deliberate and conspicuous gesture of In the context in which it appears, "frame" most nearly means * direct * prescribe * enclose * contextualize * negotiate Select one answer choice. #### Section 3 of 5 | Question 1 of 12 00:20:42 Hide Time A person played a board game five times and received scores of 80, 90, 70, *x*, and *x*. | Quantity A | Quantity B | |---|---| | The median of the five scores | *x* | * Quantity A is greater. * Quantity B is greater. * The two quantities are equal. * The relationship cannot be determined from the information given. Select one answer choice. #### Section 3 of 5 | Question 2 of 12 00:18:59 Hide Time *n* = 75*k* *k* is an odd integer. | Quantity A | Quantity B | |---|---| | The least positive prime factor of *n* | 5 | * Quantity A is greater. * Quantity B is greater. * The two quantities are equal. * The relationship cannot be determined from the information given. Select one answer choice. #### Section 3 of 5 | Question 3 of 12 00:18:15 Hide Time In the *xy*-plane, *S* is the set of all points (*c*, *d*) for which *c* and *d* are both integers. | Quantity A | Quantity B | |---|---| | The number of points in *S* that are a distance of 2 units from the point (7, 5) | 4 | * Quantity A is greater. * Quantity B is greater. * The two quantities are equal. * The relationship cannot be determined from the information given. Select one answer choice. #### Section 3 of 5 | Question 4 of 12 00:17:45 Hide Time *x* / *y* + 1 = *x* + 1 / *y* + 1 and *y*(*y* + 1) ≠ 0 | Quantity A | Quantity B | |---|---| | *x* | 0 | * Quantity A is greater. * Quantity B is greater. * The two quantities are equal. * The relationship cannot be determined from the information given. Select one answer choice. #### Section 3 of 5 | Question 5 of 12 00:16:34 Hide Time If 4*y* + 6 < -18, which of the following is a possible value of *y*? * -7 * -6 * -5 * -3 * -2 Select one answer choice. #### Section 3 of 5 | Question 6 of 12 00:15:54 Hide Time Questions 6 to 8 are based on the following data. Projected Annual Revenue and Cost for Transit Company T as a Function of the Number of Trains Run per Day [A line graph with two lines: Revenue and Cost. The x-axis is Number of Trains Run per Day and the y-axis is Millions of Dollars. The Revenue line is slightly curved and the Cost line is slightly curved. The lines intersect at a point between 60 and 70] If Transit Company T will run 60 trains per day, then the projected annual revenue is approximately what percent greater than the projected annual cost? * 1% * 5% * 10% * 15% * 30% Select one answer choice. #### Section 3 of 5 | Question 7 of 12 00:13:34 Hide Time Questions 6 to 8 are based on the following data. Projected Annual Revenue and Cost for Transit Company T as a Function of the Number of Trains Run per Day [A line graph with two lines: Revenue and Cost. The x-axis is Number of Trains Run per Day and the y-axis is Millions of Dollars. The Revenue line is slightly curved and the Cost line is slightly curved. The lines intersect at a point between 60 and 70] If Transit Company T will run 40 trains per day for a year, approximately what is the projected average revenue per day? * $310,000 * $360,000 * $410,000 * $460,000 * $510,000 Select one answer choice. #### Section 3 of 5 | Question 8 of 12 00:12:01 Hide Time Questions 6 to 8 are based on the following data. Projected Annual Revenue and Cost for Transit Company T as a Function of the Number of Trains Run per Day [A line graph with two lines: Revenue and Cost. The x-axis is Number of Trains Run per Day and the y-axis is Millions of Dollars. The Revenue line is slightly curved and the Cost line is slightly curved. The lines intersect at a point between 60 and 70] Transit Company T's projected annual cost consists of staffing costs, fuel costs, and equipment costs in the ratio of 1 to 2 to 5. If the company will run 50 trains per day, approximately what is the projected annual cost for fuel? * $12 million * $17 million * $22 million * $27 million * $32 million Select one answer choice. #### Section 3 of 5 | Question 9 of 12 00:06:21 Hide Time If *x* = -1/2 *y* and *y* = 1/3 *z*, then in terms of *z*, *xy* = * 1/18 *z*² * 1/2 *z*² * - *z*²/6 * -1/2 *z*² * - *z*²/3 Select one answer choice. #### Section 3 of 5 | Question 10 of 12 00:05:26 Hide Time [A 3x3 cube] A large cube is to be formed by placing together 27 identical white cubes as shown. The large cube will then be placed on a floor, and the 5 exposed faces will be painted black. How many of the original 27 cubes will have exactly 2 black faces? * 8 * 9 * 12 * 16 * 18 Select one answer choice. #### Section 3 of 5 | Question 11 of 12 00:04:09 Hide Time If *y* > 0 and 2*y*² - 5*y* - 3 = *y*² + *y* + 4, what is the value of *y*? *y* = ___ Enter your answer as an integer or a decimal in the answer box. Backspace to erase. #### Section 3 of 5 | Question 12 of 12 00:02:40 Hide Time The distance from the center of tree *A* to the center of tree *B* is 20 feet. The distance from the center of tree *A* to the center of tree *C* is 12 feet. The centers of the three trees are not in a straight line. Which of the following values could be the distance, in feet, from the center of tree *B* to the center of tree *C*? Indicate all such values. * 8 * 16 * 24 * 32 * 40 Select one or more answer choices. #### Section 4 of 5 | Question 1 of 15 00:22:56 Hide Time Select one entry for the blank. Fill the blank in the way that best completes the text. The often-cited parallels between human communities and insect colonies are ___, the cooperation found among social insects is essentially due to the insects' genetic ties, while humans often collaborate with nonrelatives. * superficial * obvious * uncanny * hackneyed * contradictory Select one answer choice. #### Section 4 of 5 | Question 2 of 15 00:22:31 Hide Time Select one entry for the blank. Fill the blank in the way that best completes the text. These preludes and fugues might be thought of as ___ Bach's final works, glimpses of what he would accomplish in later pieces such as *The Art of the Fugue*. * valedictories to * progeny from * adumbrations of * vestiges of * adjurations of Select one answer choice. #### Section 4 of 5 | Question 3 of 15 00:21:09 Hide Time For each blank select one entry from the corresponding column of choices. Fill all blanks in the way that best completes the text. Science is so good at what it does that many people feel a (i) ___ to apply it to social and political issues, yet experience shows that science may add little to or even (ii) ___ social and political questions. | Blank (i) | Blank (ii) | |---|---| | provocation | augur | | temptation | occlude | | reluctance | abet | Select one entry from each column. #### Section 4 of 5 | Question 4 of 15 00:19:08 Hide Time For each blank select one entry from the corresponding column of choices. Fill all blanks in the way that best completes the text. Anonymous sources have a tendency to (i) ___ the information content of news stories in which they are quoted. Most of these sources are (ii) ___ because they spin and leak selectively for political, personal, or institutional gain; all the balancing quotations from other sources can never remove their (iii) ___. | Blank (i) | Blank (ii) | Blank (iii) | |---|---|---| | contradict | unreliable | transparency | | corroborate | intransigent | taint | | degrade | obsequious | obscurity | Select one entry from each column. #### Section 4 of 5 | Question 5 of 15 00:17:36 Hide Time Questions 5 and 6 are based on this passage. Although vastly popular during its time, much nineteenth-century women's fiction in the United States went unread by the twentieth-century educated elite, who were taught to ignore it as didactic. However, American literature has a tradition of didacticism going back to its Puritan roots, shifting over time from sermons and poetic transcripts into novels, which proved to be perfect vehicles for conveying social values. In the nineteenth century, critics reviled Poe for neglecting to conclude his stories with pithy moral tags, while Longfellow was canonized for his didactic verse. Although rhetorical changes favoring the antididactic can be detected as nineteenth-century America transformed itself into a secular society, it was twentieth-century criticism, which placed aesthetic value above everything else, that had no place in its doctrine for the didacticism of others. Which of the following best describes the function of the highlighted sentence? * It explains why the fiction mentioned in the first sentence was not popular in the twentieth century. * It assists in drawing a contrast between nineteenth- and twentieth-century critics. * It provides an example of how twentieth-century readers were taught to ignore certain literature. * It questions the usefulness of a particular distinction between Poe and Longfellow made by the critics. * It explains why Poe's stories were more popular than Longfellow's verse during the nineteenth century. Select one answer choice. #### Section 4 of 5 | Question 6 of 15 00:13:39 Hide Time Questions 5 and 6 are based on this passage. Although vastly popular during its time, much nineteenth-century women's fiction in the United States went unread by the twentieth-century educated elite, who were taught to ignore it as didactic. However, American literature has a tradition of didacticism going back to its Puritan roots, shifting over time from sermons and poetic transcripts into novels, which proved to be perfect vehicles for *conveying* social values.  In the nineteenth century, critics reviled Poe for neglecting to conclude his stories with pithy moral tags, while Longfellow was canonized for his didactic verse. Although rhetorical changes favoring the antididactic can be detected as nineteenth-century America transformed itself into a secular society, it was twentieth-century criticism, which placed aesthetic value above everything else, that had no place in its doctrine for the didacticism of others. In the context in which it appears, "conveying" most nearly means * carrying * transferring * granting * imparting * projecting Select one answer choice. #### Section 4 of 5 | Question 7 of 15 00:10:51 Hide Time Questions 7 to 9 are based on this passage. The two primary theoretical traditions that frame research about audience exposure to television carry differential assumptions of how television viewers use the medium. The uses and gratifications approach conceptualizes the audience as active and goal directed when consuming media and offers an understanding of how audience motivations, individual characteristics, and preferences link to media behavior. Findings demonstrate considerable audience activity in decisions about whether to watch television, especially involving program-or program type-preferences. However, studies in this tradition empirically ignore that exposure is not completely free of constraints. Structural or contextual factors, such as the audience member's availability and access to television or other media, the ability or willingness to pay for multichannel services, as well as scheduling factors, impact use of television. Scholars who focus on these structural determinants use aggregate data (usually secondary analyses supplied by Nielsen) to demonstrate consistent patterns of macrolevel audience behavior. Findings from this approach usually have impressive predictive power and utility for explaining the mass audience but are ill-suited to explain the underlying reasons for medium or program choice, including individual motivations for selecting television in the first place. The primary purpose of the passage is to * identify a particular assumption shared by two theoretical models * delineate differences between two approaches to the study of a particular subject * account for researchers' preference for one theoretical approach over a competing approach * evaluate the evidence used to support two different explanations for a particular phenomenon * explain how certain problems with a particular research method are addressed by an alternative method Select one answer choice. #### Section 4 of 5 | Question 8 of 15 00:08:40 Hide Time Questions 7 to 9 are based on this passage. The two primary theoretical traditions that frame research about audience exposure to television carry differential assumptions of how television viewers use the medium. The uses and gratifications approach conceptualizes the audience as active and goal directed when consuming media and offers an understanding of how audience motivations, individual characteristics, and preferences link to media behavior. Findings demonstrate considerable audience activity in decisions about whether to watch television, especially involving program-or program type-preferences. However, studies in this tradition empirically ignore that exposure is not completely free of constraints. Structural or contextual factors, such as the audience member's availability and access to television or other media, the ability or willingness to pay for multichannel services, as well as scheduling factors, impact use of television. Scholars who focus on these structural determinants use aggregate data (usually secondary analyses supplied by Nielsen) to demonstrate consistent patterns of macrolevel audience behavior. Findings from this approach usually have impressive predictive power and utility for explaining the mass audience but are ill-suited to explain the underlying reasons for medium or program choice, including individual motivations for selecting television in the first place. Select the sentence in the passage that identifies a limitation to the uses and gratifications approach. #### Section 4 of 5 | Question 9 of 15 00:06:49 Hide Time Questions 7 to 9 are based on this passage. The two primary theoretical traditions that frame research about audience exposure to television carry differential assumptions of how television viewers use the medium. The uses and gratifications approach conceptualizes the audience as active and goal directed when consuming media and offers an understanding of how audience motivations, individual characteristics, and preferences link to media behavior. Findings demonstrate considerable audience activity in decisions about whether to watch television, especially involving program-or program type-preferences. However, studies in this tradition empirically ignore that exposure is not completely free of constraints. Structural or contextual factors, such as the audience member's availability and access to television or other media, the ability or willingness to pay for multichannel services, as well as scheduling factors, impact use of television. Scholars who focus on these structural determinants use aggregate data (usually secondary analyses supplied by Nielsen) to demonstrate consistent patterns of macrolevel audience behavior. Findings from this approach usually have impressive predictive power and utility for explaining the mass audience but are ill-suited to explain the underlying reasons for medium or program choice, including individual motivations for selecting television in the first place. The author would most likely agree with which of the following claims about television viewers' choices of particular programs? * They involve factors that may not be sufficiently reflected in the uses and gratifications approach. * They are difficult to study because of the paucity of aggregate data about them. * They are likely to be less reflective of people's individual preferences than of structural or contextual factors. * They cannot be reliably predicted by researchers who use neither of the approaches discussed in the passage. * They are largely determined by factors that cannot be studied empirically. Select one answer choice. #### Section 4 of 5 | Question 10 of 15 00:05:33 Hide Time Select the two answer choices that, when used to complete the sentence, fit the meaning of the sentence as a whole and produce completed sentences that are alike in meaning. Experimentation in the arts often generates befuddlement, and even ___ of innovative art generally have voiced perplexity regarding this new, experimental artwork. * proponents * vilifiers * defenders * belittlers * vendors * luminaries Select two answer choices. #### Section 4 of 5 | Question 11 of 15 00:04:43 Hide Time Select the two answer choices that, when used to complete the sentence, fit the meaning of the sentence as a whole and produce completed sentences that are alike in meaning. When first introduced, cubicle workspaces were seen as having ___ effect on office workers, but as cubicle sizes steadily shrank, the aspirations of the people working in them became increasingly constrained. * a revitalizing * a soothing * a liberating * a protecting * an emancipatory * a calming Select two answer choices. #### Section 4 of 5 | Question 12 of 15 00:05:03 Hide Time Select the two answer choices that, when used to complete the sentence, fit the meaning of the sentence as a whole and produce completed sentences that are alike in meaning. Williams argues that philosophy has become ___ occupation these days, and that it should rather be "part of a more general attempt to make the best sense of our life". * a recondite * a challenging * an esoteric * an exacting * a salacious * an altruistic Select two answer choices. #### Section 4 of 5 | Question 13 of 15 00:02:34 Hide Time Question 13 is based on this passage. When the government of Altonia imposed strict new safety regulations on the coal-mining industry in 1968, the annual number of fatalities from accidents in the industry began to decline from previous high levels. A decline in fatalities would undoubtedly have occurred, however, even without the imposition of the regulations, because ever since 1968, Altonia's coal-mining industry has been shifting from underground mining to surface strip-mining, which is much less dangerous. Which of the following is an assumption on which the argument depends? * The percentage of accidents in Altonia's coal mines that result in fatalities has not increased since 1968. * The frequency with which Altonia's mining safety regulations are violated did not increase significantly after the new stricter regulations went into effect. * All of the underground coal mines that are currently operating in Altonia were in operation before 1968. * The 1968 safety regulations apply only to underground mining and not to surface strip-mining. * The strictness of the 1968 safety regulations was not a major factor in the mining industry's shift away from underground mining. Select one answer choice. #### Section 4 of 5 | Question 14 of 15 00:02:07 Hide Time Questions 14 and 15 are based on the following passage. Most twentieth-century critics read Melville's *Pierre* as a parody of the sentimental novel. They point to its overblown prose and hyperbolic rendering of domestic manners to argue that *Pierre* is a barbed critique of bourgeois politesse. A variation of this reading stresses Melville's strategic sentimentalism, positing that *Pierre*'s romantic-familial plot was meant to engage superficial readers, while the book's deeper elements were aimed at his true audience. Both readings emphasize Melville's aloofness and authorial control, imagining the writer by turns mocking and hoodwinking a feckless readership. Such a strategy, however, implies a cool detachment of the artist from his creation, when in fact Melville is never more personally involved or more in earnest than he is in *Pierre*. Consider each of the choices separately and select all that apply. According to the passage, twentieth-century critics cite which of the following in support of the idea that in *Pierre*, Melville is "by turns mocking and hoodwinking a feckless readership"? * Melville's personal involvement in his creation * Melville's use of an extravagant writing style * Melville's exaggerated depiction of bourgeois society Select one or more answer choices. #### Section 4 of 5 | Question 15 of 15 00:00:50 Hide Time Questions 14 and 15 are based on the following passage. Most twentieth-century critics read Melville's *Pierre* as a parody of the sentimental novel. They point to its overblown prose and hyperbolic rendering of domestic manners to argue that *Pierre* is a barbed critique of bourgeois politesse. A variation of this reading stresses Melville's strategic sentimentalism, positing that *Pierre*'s romantic-familial plot was meant to engage superficial readers, while the book's deeper elements were aimed at his true audience. Both readings emphasize Melville's aloofness and authorial control, imagining the writer by turns mocking and hoodwinking a feckless readership. Such a strategy, however, implies a cool detachment of the artist from his creation, when in fact Melville is never more personally involved or more in earnest than he is in *Pierre*. Select the sentence that presents a reason for questioning twentieth-century readings of *Pierre*. #### Section 5 of 5 | Question 1 of 15 00:25:48 Hide Time [A circle with center O and radius 2*r* and a smaller circle with center O and radius *r*, the region between the two circles is shaded] The two circular regions shown have center *O* and radii *r* and 2*r*, respectively. | Quantity A | Quantity B | |---|---| | The area of the shaded region | 3 times the area of the circular region with radius *r* | * Quantity A is greater. * Quantity B is greater. * The two quantities are equal. * The relationship cannot be determined from the information given. Select one answer choice. #### Section 5 of 5 | Question 2 of 15 00:24:59 Hide Time The operation 4 is defined by *x* 4 *y* = (*x* + *y*)/(*x* - *y*) for all integers *x* and *y*, where *x* ≠ *y*. The integer *a* is positive and the integer *b* is negative. | Quantity A | Quantity B | |---|---| | *a* 4 *b* | *b* 4 *a* | * Quantity A is greater. * Quantity B is greater. * The two quantities are equal. * The relationship cannot