Questions 1 and 2 are based on this passage. ?

According to the traditional view of commerce in colonial Mexico, the substantial merchants of ?Mexico City, acting in concert with Spanish exporters, colluded to inflate prices. Price fixing would have ?required a significant degree of collaboration, since no single merchant came close to enjoying ?monopoly power. According to Hoberman, the number of wholesale merchants in Mexico varied from ?252 in 1598 to 177 in 1689 to around 200 in the late eighteenth century. Hoberman's figures may be ?conservative, however. As Kicza notes many prominent merchants did not use the formal titles— mercader or almacenero—that Hoberman looked for in compiling her data. Yet even if we accept ?Hoberman’s numbers, that still leaves far too many to have successfully cooperated to fix prices.?

1. In the context of the overall argument, the highlighted sentence primarily functions to?

A. imply that evidence against the view the author opposes could be understated?

B. provide evidence to support a point that is made in the subsequent sentence?

C. suggest that evidence that might appear relevant is invalidated by a hidden bias?

D. indicate the need for further evidence to support the author’s position?

E. point a weakness in evidence that has been used against the author’s position?

2. Hoberman’s data are important to the author’s argument primarily because they?

A. show the dangers of generalizing about colonial commerce in Mexico?

B. highlight the wide variation in the number of merchants in Mexico during the colonial period ?

C. provide the basis for a view about colonial commerce in Mexico that the author disputes?

D. call into question a basic assumption of the established view of colonial commerce in Mexico?

E. point to the highly competitive nature of colonial commerce in Mexico?

Questions 3 to 6 are based on this passage:

When Flemish painter Anthony Van Dyck moved to England in 1632 to become court painter to Charles I, he introduced an entirely new way of representing dress in portraiture. In women’s portraits, he enhanced sleeves and collars, and added lavish drapery and jewels. For the first time, an artist actively participated in dressing his subjects, creating an amalgam of fantasy and reality. While Van Dyck was most innovative when representing women, he used similar elements in portraits of men.

Van Dyck’s?Portrait of Thomas Killigrew and William, Lord Crofts?(1638) demonstrates how the artist relaxed and unbuttoned men’s dress to accord with an underlying theme. The double portrait may be seen as an essay in grief: Killigrew, a poet and playwright, had lost his wife Cecelia to the plague shortly before the sitting; Crofts was her nephew. The painting contains clear references to the situation at hand. The background features a broken column, a traditional emblem of earthly transience. A drawing in Killigrew’s right hand depicts two funerary monuments. Crofts holds a blank sheet of paper, seen by some scholars as an analog to the drawing Killigrew holds: a symbol of what is gone.

Art historians have interpreted the clothing depicted in this portrait, particularly Crofts’ doublet, which is worn unbuttoned in back, as an allusion to the subjects’ grief-stricken distraction. It is true that Killigrew’s dress includes references to his loss—he wears a cross inscribed with his wife’s initials. There is an intuitive nature to this painting, which seems underscored by the loose clothing worn by both subjects. However, this reading of the costumes as a sign of grief does not take into account the seventeenth-century fashion conventions. Only Killigrew appears in noticeably disheveled attire; Crofts’ dress would be quite appropriate for a formal portrait. Though black clothing, such as that worn by Crofts, was common for mourning, it was also ordinary on other occasions. Furthermore, during the first stage of mourning, no shiny surfaces, such as Crofts’ satin doublet, would be permitted. The unbuttoned slit on Crofts’ doublet was probably a matter of style: a French courtier in a 1635 fashion print by Bosse, who is gallivanting rather than grieving, wears a similarly undone doublet. Evidence suggests that by the late 1630s, a certain calculated looseness was conventional in men’s formal dress. Ribeiro, for example, cites the writings of moralists objecting to this style.

Killigrew’s attire, though even looser than Crofts’, should not necessarily be associated with grief. Other seventeenth-century subjects depicted in melancholic states do not dress this way. Although Killigrew’s “undress” lends this portrait a distinctive intimacy, it might also refer to Killigrew’s literary career. Many of Van Dyck’s other subjects who engaged in literary pursuits are depicted in loose clothing.?The blank sheet held by Crofts may be a reminder not only of Killigrew’s loss but also of his solace: he had but to express his grief in writing.

3. The author of the passage suggests that if the cited “art historians” had taken account of seventeenth-century fashion, they would have been more likely to?

A. recognize that the clothing worn by the subjects in the?Portrait?contributes to an atmosphere of intimacy in the painting

B. recognize the event to which Van Dyck’s approach to portraiture represented a departure from the practices of other artists

C. recognize that Crofts’ manner of dress in the?Portrait?was appropriate for a formal portrait

D. conclude that the doublet worn by Crofts in the?Portrait?is not made of satin

E. be able to distinguish between the significance of the unbuttoned doublet depicted in the Portrait?and that of the one depicted in a fashion print by Bosse

4.?The author of the passage suggests which of the following about Killigrew’s disheveled attire in the?Portrait of Thomas Killigrew and William, Lord Crofts???

A. It resembles clothing worn by subjects in melancholic states in other paintings in the period.

B. It resembles the clothing worn by subjects in other Van Dyck paintings who were associated with literature.

C. It includes shiny materials that were not considered appropriate for the first stage of mourning.

D. It reflects the distraction and inattentiveness to dress typical of a person in a state of mourning.

E. It has been regarded by art historians as evidence that Van Dyck chose the clothing worn by the subjects in the painting.

5. The author’s reference to the “cross” worn by Killigrew serves primarily as?

A. a concession of partial agreement with a point made by other art historians about the?Portrait

B. evidence supporting the author’s main point about the significance of Killigrew’s state of dress in the?Portrait

C. an example of the kind of detail overlooked by other art historians who have commented on the?Portrait

D. an example of the type of adornment that was rarely seen in portraiture before Van Dyck

E. an illustration of the way in which Van Dyck used emblematic as well as realistic elements in this portraits

6. Which of the following best describes the function of the last sentence of the passage?

A. It suggests that a certain detail of the painting should not be understood as emblematic.

B. It calls attention to a detail of the painting that art historians have generally overlooked.

C. It offers support for the author’s interpretation of the significance of Killigrew’s clothing.

D. It introduces evidence to support the author’s view of the appropriateness of Crofts’ manner of dress.

E. It casts doubt on the way that art historians have interpreted the relationship between the two subjects in the painting.

Question 7 is based on this passage:?

When streambeds are experimentally exposed to high-intensity ultraviolet radiation, the amount of algae in those streambeds at first declines but after about three weeks increases to well beyond original?levels. Some scientists hypothesize that the increase occurs because exposure to high-intensity ultraviolet radiation, which is somewhat harmful to algae, makes the stream-dwelling insects that feed on the algae unable to reproduce.?

7. Which of the following, if true, could best serve as evidence in favor of the scientists’ ?hypothesis??

A. Populations of steam-dwelling insects that feed on algae can develop resistance to high-intensity ultraviolet radiation within three weeks.?

B. It takes about three weeks for a stream that has been depleted of its insect life to become repopulated.?

C. Stream-dwelling insects that feed on algae will generally turn to other food sources in the absence of algae to feed on.?

D. Many species of algae that grow in streambeds rely on the nutrients provided by animals that?feed on algae-eating insects.?

E. For stream-dwelling insects that feed on algae, a three-week-long life cycle is typical, whether or not the insects have been exposed to high-intensity ultraviolet radiation.?

Questions 8 - 10 are based on this passage:?

Because there is no direct evidence as to how smelting was discovered, its origin has long been a subject?of scholarly speculation. Smelting requires, among other things, heating a metallic ore to a high ?temperature, so an obvious conjecture was that it first occurred when someone inadvertently dropped ?a piece of copper ore into a fire and noticed the results. This campfire theory is not very convincing,?however, because open wood or charcoal fires rarely exceed a temperature of 700?C, whereas copper?smelting requires reaching 1084?C, the melting point of copper. Furthermore, simply heating malachite ?[a mineral containing copper] to 1084?C will not produce metallic copper; it must be heated for hours?in a “reducing atmosphere” (an oxygen-poor, carbon-rich atmosphere), which an open fire does not provide.?

More persuasive is the pottery kiln theory, which suggests that metallurgy began when potters using?malachite to color their pots may have found small bits of smelted copper in their kilns, prompting them to undertake deliberate experiments. The latter theory is more plausible for several reasons: first ?because fires in the closed kilns could reach the requisite temperature; second, because they produced ?a reducing atmosphere; and third, because copper smelting and high-temperature kilns make their initial ?appearance in the archaeological record at approximately the same time. Both the campfire and pottery-kiln theories, it should be noted, would suggest that the pioneer metallurgists may well have been women. ?

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

8. The author makes which of the following points about open wood fires??

A. They were not widely used at the time smelting originated.?

B. They do not get hot enough to melt copper.?

C. They do not provide the reducing atmosphere necessary for smelting to occur.?

9. Which of the following is true about the two theories discussed in the passage??

A. Both theories conclude that after its discovery, smelting quickly became widespread.?

B. Both theories assume that smelting originated with an accidental finding.?

C. Both theories receive some support from the archaeological record.?

D. One theory argues that smelting originated accidentally, while the other sees it as the result of deliberate experimentation.?

E. One theory considers smelting a commercial activity, while the other focuses on its being a?form of artistic expression.?

10. Which of the following, if true, would most clearly serve to weaken the pottery-kiln theory??

A. Archaeologists have been unable to find evidence of copper smelting and evidence of closed?kilns in the same archaeological sites.?

B. When smelting was first discovered, very few kilns were able to sustain high temperatures for?long periods of time.?

C. When smelting was first discovered, many high-temperature kilns were open rather than closed.?

D. Remains of malachite-colored pottery are much more abundant than is evidence of closed kilns.?

E. Copper ore is generally scarce in areas where archaeologists found evidence of high?temperature-kilns.