Questions 1 and 2 are based on this passage.?

Astronomers can measure any given star's radial velocity by examining its spectrum-light spread out into its constituent wavelengths. If an object is moving toward us, its spectral lines shift to shorter wavelengths; if it's moving away, the lines swing to longer avelengths. The higher the velocity, the greater the shift. Although this sort of spectral analysis is straightforward for nearby stars, it becomes far more difficult for distant stars in the Milky Way's outer halo. Even large telescopes can't gather enough of their light. For this reason, astronomer Ulrich Heber conjectures that there are probably several low-mass hypervelocity stars yet to be discovered. Although these diminutive objects live longer than B-type stars, which are extremely luminous and blue, they radiate much less light.

1. Which of the following best describes the function of the highlighted sentence in the context of the passage as a whole?

A. It suggests why a technique discussed in the passage is becoming outmoded.

B. It confirms the existence of dimmer stars in the Milky Way's outer halo.?

C. It explains a shortcoming of a commonly used technique.

D. It supports the arguments of astronomers who challenge Heber's conjecture.

E. It bolsters the passage's claim that larger telescopes need to be built.?

2. The passage suggests that Heber would be most likely to agree with which statement about low-mass hypervelocity stars?

A. The spectral lines of low-mass hypervelocity stars are subject to constant fluctuation.

B. Methods other than spectral analysis have failed to confirm the existence of low-mass hypervelocity stars.?

C. Low-mass hypervelocity stars are more numerous in the Milky Way than B-type stars.?

D. There are more low-mass hypervelocity stars than currently available methods are capable of detecting.?

E. The light from low-mass hypervelocity stars cannot be distinguished from the light of brighter, B-type stars.

Questions 3 to 6 are based on this passage.

In 1939, Dewan Sharar emphasized the appeal of Indian films depicting legends of gods and goddesses to a devoutly Hindu mass audience. The audiences for these early-twentieth-century mythological or pauranika films of pioneering filmmaker Dhundiraj Govind Phalke were assumed to resemble cinema’s mythical first audiences - the terrified spectators of the Lumiere Brothers'?Arrival of a Train at the Station, who reportedly reared?back in terror upon perceiving the cinematic train as the real thing. It is true that Phalke invited the spectator, through means such as the reactions of an on-screen audience, to relate to the image in the manner of a devotee before an idol, as in the Hindu religious practice of darshan. It is also undoubtedly true that many spectators did assume this particular viewing position. However, we need to be careful about assuming that this was the only spectatorial position or about ascribing to the Indian mass public a naive readiness to believe in the divinity and reality of the screen image. To begin with, Indian viewers were not unfamiliar with the reenactment of the pauranika myths; folk performances and Parsi theater provided an immediate context for the mythological films. Phalke himself called his films new plays or silent plays, contrasting them with the old or stage plays. A significant percentage of his audiences would probably have regarded a mythological film as another performance based on religious myth, albeit a relatively novel one, and one in which the absent presence of the performers added a uniquely thrilling dimension to the supernatural spectacles on display.?

Moreover, these early films' mode of presentation would have undermined any naively realist or purely religious reading. Contemporary audiences would have customarily encountered these films in a less-than-spiritual exhibition context, watching them in conjunction with topical newsreels, American serials, or live performances such as magic shows, comic skits, or exotic dances. [Phalke's flm] Raja Harishchandra, for instance, was first screened at Bombay's Coronation Cinema as part of an hour-and-a-half-long variety show featuring a dance by Miss Irene Delmar; a "comical sketch" by the McClements; and the talents of Alexandroff, "The Wonderful Foot- Juggler," in addition to the film. The discontinuity and variety of this form of cinema program were typical of exhibition practices in the first decades of cinema across the world. In his essay, "The Cult of Distraction: On Berlin 's Picture Palaces," Siegfried Kracauer writes about the role of the variety format of the cinema program in creating "a fragmented sequence of splendid sense impressions" or an aesthetic of distraction that undermined an illusionistic absorption in the images. Extending Kracauer's logic to the exhibition context of the early mythologicals, one can argue that the variety format would have had a similar effect.

3. It can be inferred from the passage that when analyzing the appeal of early-twentieth-century Indian mythological films, Dewan Sharar

A. emphasized the applicability of Siegfried Kracauer's theories

B. emphasized the similarities between early Indian films and early French films?

C. did not focus on the cinematic devices used to invite the spectator to idolize the screen image?

D. did not focus on the films of Dhundiraj Govind Phalke

E. did not focus on the contexts in which the films were screened

4. The author of the passage would most likely agree with which of the following statements regarding the original audiences of Phalke's mythological films?

A. The original audiences' experiences influenced Siegfried Kracauer's theoretical ideas about audience reaction.

B. The original audiences were more interested in the noncinematic features accompanying Phalke's films than in the films themselves.?

C. The original audiences of Phalke's films had greater experience of live theater than did the audiences of the Lumiere Brothers' early films.?

D. The role of religion in attracting the original audiences to early Indian films has been exaggerated.

E. Critics are mistaken in thinking the original audiences preferred earlier theatrical presentations to cinematic presentations of the?pauranika?myths.?

5. The highlighted sentence mainly serves to

A. offer a clarification of the meaning of a term

B. warm against accepting a particular analysis?

C. caution against discounting a particular theory?

D. emphasize the role of religion in early Indian film

E. illustrate how a belief became widely held?

6. The passage suggests that Kracauer's ideas are applicable to the original audiences of Phalke's mythological films because of the films'?

A. mode of presentation?

B. style of reenactment?

C. thrilling supernatural displays?

D. evident popular appeal?

E. distinctive visual imagery

Question 7 is based on this passage.

Crows, herring gulls, and sparrows all live on the island of Firsten. Crows feed on sparrow eggs and therefore pose a threat to the sparrow population. Although gulls are not nearly as good at finding sparrow nests as crows are, sparrows typically also lose some eggs to gull predation. Nevertheless, sparrows that nest near gull nests tend to lose fewer eggs to predators than sparrows nesting far away from gull nests, since______.

7. Which of the following most logically completes the argument?

A. the presence of gulls frightens away crows

B. crows pose no threat to adult sparrows

C. gulls find sparrow nests by watching female sparrows enter the nest

D. there are far more crows on Firsten than there are sparrows

E. sparrows on Firsten typically hide their nests very carefully

Questions 8 to 10 are based on this passage.

Many scholarly discussions of novelist Willa Cather (1873-1947) debate whether Cather belongs more to the nineteenth-century realist tradition or to the modernist revolution of the early twentieth century. While Cather's preoccupation with nineteenth-century agrarian culture has won her the respect of readers and critics, her dismast of modernity left her with a historically unstable position in the modernist canon. Resistance to the changes wrought by the twentieth century, of course, does not necessarily disqualify one from the "modernist" label. The impulse to reconnect with more primitive, earlier times is a hallmark of modernist aesthetics, shaping the search for meaning in a fragmented, disenchanted, mechanized world. Yet more often than not, [literary?critic] Phyllis Rose explains, the early twentieth-century atmosphere of experimentation and "making it new" and an attendant critical discourse that "valued complexity, ambiguity, even obscurity" resulted in Cather 's labeling as "naively traditional " and "essentially nostalgic and elegiac." In effect, in modernist studies she has been treated as a romantic regional writer, unconcerned with the international terrain so integral to modern thinking-at least until scholars, in the 1980s and 1990s, began reevaluating the historical record, demonstrating?her innovative departures from nineteenth-century fiction, including antiheroism, gender-bending, episodic narrative, antirealism, simple prose, emphasis on memory and time, and the exploration of immigration, empire, and race. Today it is not uncommon to encounter critics announcing Cather's newfound canonical status as a modernist-indicated most clearly by her inclusion in works such as The Cambridge Companion to American Modernism published in 2005.

8. The primary purpose of the passage is to

A. illustrate the inadequacy of a label used by literary scholars to describe a particular author

B. advocate that the criteria used to evaluate a particular author's work be revised

C. illustrate a shift in how a particular author's work has been classified by scholars

D. trace an evolution in scholars' understandings of the primary influences on a particular author

E. challenge the usefulness of a distinction that dominates critical discussions of a particular author

9. The author mentions "resistance to the changes" primarily to

A. cite evidence to support an assertion made earlier in the passage

B. identity a theme that means through much of Cather's fiction

C. challenge an overly narrow view of the features that define modernism

D. explain why some critics have failed to appreciate the quality of Cather's writing

E. trace the emergence of a stylistic innovation adopted by modernist writers

10. According to the passage, "the historical record"

A. explains why Cather has been considered a romantic regional

B. was less important to Cather scholars prior to the 1980s than it was in later decades

C. offers conflicting evidence about Cather's attitudes toward the modern world

D. provided some scholars with a basis for challenging a long-standing view of Cather

E. reveals that Cather was relatively uninterested in international affairs