Each sentence below has one or more blanks, each blank indicating that something has been omitted. Beneath the sentence are five words for one-blank questions and sets of three words for each blank for two- and three-blank questions. Choose the word or set of words for each blank that best fits the meaning of the sentence as a whole.
The cockpit recording from the downed airliner was initially , but after careful analysis, experts were able to determine much of what the pilots had been shouting.
In spite of its popularity, The Merchant of Venice remains a (i) play, with many critics (ii) the extent of Shakespeare’s anti-Semitism.
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Considered one of his most (i) works, Mozart’s Requiem in D Minor has a certain (ii) in Western culture because of its incomplete status at the time of his death, and many (iii) stories have arisen surrounding it; unfortunately, the truth is lost to us.
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Although Thomas Paine was most (i) his political pamphlets, he was in fact (ii) writer on many different subjects.
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Because Rachel’s success had convinced her of her own (i) , she never (ii) her errors.
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St. Elmo’s fire is a weather phenomenon that, (i) it has been documented since ancient times, was not (ii) until recently.
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Questions 7–10 are based on the passage below.
It has been commonly accepted for some time now that certain scenes in Shakespeare’s Macbeth are interpolations from the writing of another author; act III, scene 5, and parts of act IV, scene 1, have been determined to be the writing of one of his contemporaries, Thomas Middleton. This can be regarded as both illuminating and problematic, depending upon how the play is being studied. It allows us to infer a great deal about the conventions and practices of writing for the stage at the time. For example, playwriting may have been more collaborative than previously thought, or perhaps Elizabethan notions of plagiarism were different from ours. While historically significant, this does complicate our interpretation of the characters in the play. It is more difficult to assess authorial intention with regard to a character’s motives if the text has been redacted by multiple authors.
Select the statement or statements that are correct according to the passage.
Consider each of the choices separately and select all that apply.
Which of the following could aid in the further study of the interpolations discussed in the above passage?
Consider each of the choices separately and select all that apply.
Which CANNOT be inferred from the passage?
In the passage, the two highlighted statements play which of the following roles?
For the following questions, select the two answer choices that, when inserted into the sentence, fit the meaning of the sentence as a whole and yield complete sentences that are similar in meaning.
Known to all as having a silver tongue, the orator easily distracts audiences from the meaning of his words with his speech.
While medical experts have long touted the importance of sleep to optimal health, many adults will forgo the ________ effects of taking a nap for fear of seeming idle.
The celebrated playwright’s most recent work, intended to be a serious exploration of the meaning of existence, was roundly ________ by theatergoers, who found the lofty themes and abstruse language to be overwrought and almost comical.
Word painting is a musical technique in which the progression of the notes the meaning of the lyrics; a famous example of this can be found in Handel’s Messiah, in which the notes rise with the mention of “mountains” and fall with the mention of “low.”
Each passage in this group is followed by questions based on its content. After reading a passage, choose the best answer to each question. Answer all questions following a passage on the basis of what is stated or implied in that passage.
Questions 15 and 16 are based on the passage below.
In the decades leading up to the 1970s, the primarily French-speaking Canadian province of Québec saw its proportion of native French speakers diminish from year to year. The attrition of French was attributed to the preeminence of English in the workplace, particularly in affluent, “white-collar” jobs. The French-speaking majority was economically marginalized within its own province, as it was left with the choice of either working in lower-paying jobs or teaching its children English as a first language. The latter option would further erase Québec’s cultural autonomy and singularity within a country that primarily spoke English. Facing the risk of linguistic extinction, the province passed Loi 101 (Law 101): The Charter of the French Language. It established French as the only official language of the province, established the primacy of French in the workplace, and led to more economic equity. Since its passage in 1977, the percentage of people in Québec who speak French as a first language has begun to rise.
Which of the following is suggested in the passage as a reason for the decline of French in Québec?
According to the passage, Loi 101 was significant in that it
Questions 17–19 are based on the paragraph below.
The advent of online education in the first decade of the 21st century was the result of and a response to a number of factors that were both internal and external to the field of higher education. Traditional tertiary institutions, especially those that were privately endowed, raised tuition rates far in excess of the rate of inflation. This, in concert with a larger demand for postsecondary education for working adults, helped facilitate the introduction of online learning. However, it should be acknowledged that the relative simplicity of using the Internet as a platform, as well as its cost-effectiveness, was seized upon by entrepreneurs in the private sector. Online education is largely in the hands of for-profit companies. The question now becomes whether the democratization of higher education is worth the price of removing it from nonprofit, research-based universities.
The passage is concerned primarily with
The author’s use of the term “seized upon” evokes an image of on the part of the entrepreneurs.
The highlighted section refers to
Question 20 is based on the passage below.
Thermodynamics is concerned with changes in the properties of matter when we alter the external conditions. An example of this is a gas being compressed by the motion of a piston. The final outcome depends on how the change is made—if the piston is moved in slowly, we say that the compression is “reversible.” This means that if we pull the piston back out, we retrace the same sequence of properties but in the reverse order; hence, the temperature of the gas will be the same when the piston has been pulled out as it was before the piston was pushed in. However, if the piston is moved in and out quickly, then the initial state (and temperature) will not be recovered—the gas will always be hotter than it was at the beginning. This is a manifestation, although not a statement, of the second law of thermodynamics. It also makes a difference whether there is a transfer of heat between the cylinder of gas and the external surroundings. If the cylinder is insulated, then the gas will heat on compression and cool on expansion (refrigeration uses this principle). On the other hand, if the cylinder can exchange heat with the surroundings, it will remain at the same temperature if the compression is slow enough.
This passage is primarily concerned with