Questions 1 and 2 are based on this passage. ??

The movement of free African Americans toward positive collective incorporation in the late ?eighteenth century was a response to their political environment. It was also a manifestation of a West ?African culture of voluntary and secret association. The secret society preceded the Black church as the ?fundamental unit of political organization for African Americans, the primary venue through which?collective welfare was pursued and claims to a place in civil society were enacted. In following West African tradition African American secret societies such as Prince Hall Freemasonry differed ?significantly in aim and organization from their White counterparts. White society depended on secrets to germinate social prestige, rather than using secrecy as a functional feature of oppositional political?organization.?

Consider each of the choices separately and select all that apply.?

1. The passage implies that the form African American secret societies took was influenced ?by?

A. the form taken by White secret societies that existed at the time ?

B. the political situation in which African Americans found themselves?

C. the Black church as an organizational model?

2. In the context in which it appears, “pursued” most nearly means?

A. hoped for ?

B. practiced ?

C. sought?

D. chased?

E. shadowed?

Questions 3 to 6 are based on this passage:

During the early years of the United States environmental movement in the 1960s and 1970s, ?alarmed activists, warning that nature was in danger of being irredeemably destroyed by human activity, ?demanded a variety of environmental protections, including the preservation of wilderness areas as ?national parks. But these environmentalists’ conceptual framework came under scrutiny shortly?thereafter as cultural critics--especially those who were part of the theory revolution that transformed?and preoccupied literary study into the end of the century--began to spread the postmodern wisdom?that these parks museumized nature and that the wilderness they tried to preserve was not the primeval ?wild but a social construction. A consensus was growing that all areas of human life--from people’s personal attitudes to the mediascapes they inhabited to the ideas they formed and the built worlds in which they dwelt--were socially constructed, and these attitudes were quickly extended to nature, ?especially since ecologists and environmental historians had become so clear in demonstrating the?determinative effects on nature of human beings from ancient to modern times. ?

One important result of this change in thought was that a number of qualities that 1960s and ‘70s ?activist ecologists had felt nature self-evidently possessed seemed to be suddenly undercut--and in a ?startling and provocatively contrarian manner. Most important, nature’s once-apparent “otherness” ?seemed suddenly to be no more. In fact, it seemed to vanish in a number of different ways. Human?beings had so encroached on nature, the apocalypticist had shown, that nature was no longer independent of people. Supplementing this sense of radical contemporary change were environmental ?historians’ insights into how radically the earth’s ecosystems had been reshaped over the course of ?human history, from the emergence of mankind to the invention of agriculture to the rise of modern?society. Ideas of a timeless or pure nature were thus discredited. Finally, on the level of intellectual?history, nature’s “otherness” was undermined in an equally decisive manner when cultural theorists began to argue that this supposed attribute was not only a socially constructed ideology, but an ideology?of surprisingly recent vintage. The “otherness” of nature was an ideology that had been put in place?during the romantic period of the nineteenth century--and put in place so decisively that it seemed to?be the nature of nature.

3. Which of the following most accurately characterizes the “change”??

A. A new rationale for preserving wilderness areas emerged as an earlier one lost ground. ?

B. The idea that nature was being affected by human activities was no longer accepted.?

C. A philosophical belief about nature was applied to all areas of human life. ?

D. A view that had underlain discussions about environmentalism began to seem untenable.?

E. The environmental movement was increasingly considered to be ineffective and unnecessary.?

4. The author mentions “built worlds” primarily in order to ?

A. demonstrate how a particular claim has failed to provide support for an argument?

B. explain why certain distinctions can be difficult to recognized as socially constructed ?

C. highlight a contrast between the primeval environment and environment is threatened by human activity ?

D. qualify a point about one of the ways in which the natural environment is threatened by human activity?

E. elucidate an argument used to challenge a particular understanding of nature?

5. The passage suggests which of the following about the “conceptual framework”??

A. It has been misrepresented by certain postmodern thinkers?

B. It was based on ideas that were rooted in the nineteenth century. ?

C. It originated with activists eager to protect the natural environment.?

D. It was popularized by theoretical trends that influenced literary studies.?

E. It has enjoyed a resurgence since the early years of the environmental movement.?

6. The author would be most likely to agree with which of the following assertions about the ?“ideology”?

?A. It probably owes more to the cultural milieu of the later twentieth century than it does to the romantic period. ?

B. It might have been more influential if those who adhered to it had understood the origins of that ideology. ?

C. It has mistakenly been characterized as having once been widely held even though few people actually accepted it.?

D. Its influence on environmental activists is surprising, given those activists’ aspirations to preserve natural areas. ?

E. Its historically specific origins were apparently not known to activists who participated in the?environmental movement of the 1960s and 1970s.?

Questions 7 is based on this passage:?

Over the last 20 years, both the total amount of grain produced in Andesaran and the total amount?of grain consumed by the Andesaran population have increased. Over the same period, however, ?although the amount of grain produced has increased more than the total amount of grain consumed ?by Andesara’s inhabitants has increased, Andesara has gone from exporting more grain than it imports ?to importing more grain than it exports.?

7. In light of the information given, which of the following, if true, most helps to account for ?Andesara’s now importing more grain than it exports??

A. The population of Andesara is substantially larger today than it was twenty years ago. ?

B. The proportion of Andesara’s annual grain production that is exported to neighboring countries is substantially smaller today than it was twenty years ago. ?

C. The proportion of Andesara’s annual grain production that is fed to cattle is substantially greater today than it was twenty years ago. ?

D. The proportion of Andesarans for whom grain is a major component of their diet is substantially smaller today than in twenty years ago.?

E. In some countries to which Andesara once exported grain, agricultural advances during the last twenty years have led to dramatic increases in food production.?

Questions 8 - 10 are based on this passage:?

Two factors primarily determine whether disease-causing bacteria infecting a human community ?will become resistant to eradication by an antibiotic drug: the presence in the bacteria of resistance genes (which generate proteins that shield bacteria from an antibiotic’s effects) and the extent of antibiotic use in the community. If the various bacterial species in a community have no genes that?confer resistance to a given antibiotic, the antibiotic will successfully eliminate infection by any of those species. Alternatively, if resistance genes are present and the community uses the drug persistently, ?those bacteria able to defy eradication by the antibiotic will emerge and multiply. Individually, antibiotic?resistant bacteria are not more virulent than susceptible ones of the same species: the same numbers of resistant and susceptible bacterial cells are required to produce disease. But the resistant forms are harder to destroy. Those that are slightly resistant to an antibiotic can often be eliminated by using more?of the drug; those that are highly resistant require other therapies.?

8. Which of the following is mentioned in the passage as a way in which antibiotic-resistant bacteria fight eradication? ?

A. They initiate a rapid reproduction of cells, which overwhelms the antibiotic. ?

B. The forestall attack by the antibiotic by becoming undetectable.?

C. They produce proteins that protect the bacteria from the antibiotic.?

D. They disable the antibiotic before it can have any effect on the bacteria.?

E. They temporarily become more virulent while antibiotics are present.?

9. The passage suggests that if a bacterial species were classified as highly resistant to a particular antibiotic, which of the following scenarios would indicate that it had been misclassified?

A. The bacteria resisted large doses of the antibiotic but responded favorably to small doses of a different antibiotic.?

B. The bacteria resisted large doses of the antibiotic but responded favorably to large doses of a?different antibiotic. ?

C. The bacteria resisted initial treatment with small doses of the antibiotic and remained ?uncontrolled after prolonged treatment with larger doses of the same antibiotic.?

D. The bacteria resisted initial treatment with small doses of the antibiotic but were destroyed by?large doses of the same antibiotic.?

E. The bacteria were unaffected by treatment with the antibiotic and later multiplied despite large?doses of a different antibiotic.?

10. In the context in which it appears, "confer” most nearly means ?

A. advise

B. define?

C. transfer

D. overcome?

E. afford