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

The hypothesis that paranormal phenomena are real but lie outside the limits of science is supported by?considerable evidence. The Society for Psychic Research has collected stories of ordinary people apparently demonstrating paranormal abilities. Entirely anecdotal, this evidence has nothing to do with science, since it cannot be reproduced under controlled conditions. But the society took greater trouble to interview first-hand?witnesses and to document the stories carefully. One fact that emerges clearly from the stories is that paranormal events occur, if they occur at all, only when people are experiencing strong emotion. This would immediately explain why paranormal phenomena are not observable under the conditions of a well-controlled?scientific experiment. Strong emotion is inherently incompatible with controlled scientific procedures.?

1. Which of the following best describes the role played in the passage by the highlighted sentence??

A. It states the main conclusion of the author’s argument.?

B. It provides a basis for a recommended course of action.?

C. It articulates a principle that supports the claim made in the preceding sentence.?

D. It is intended to undermine the credibility of apparent evidence that the author has mentioned earlier ?in the passage.?

E. It serves to emphasize a limitation of the evidence collected by the society for Psychical Research.?

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

2. It can be inferred that the author of the passage would agree with which of the following descriptions of the evidence collected by the Society for Psychical Research??

A. Carefully recorded?

B. Unscientific?

C. Credible?

Questions 3 to 5 are based on this passage.

Eighteenth-century women played a significant part in British political life. Up and down the social scale they performed a variety of political acts, everything from purchasing political artifacts such as plates, handkerchiefs, and fans to penning political pamphlets, starring in civic processions, sponsoring boycotts, arguing over public issues in their own debating societies, rioting, and uttering seditious words. Whereas historians used to see female political involvement in this century as isolated or aberrant, they now stress the?continuity and normally of such activity, especially for aristocratic women. Given the familial nature of aristocratic politics, noble women were actually expected to act as political advisors and agents for their?husbands, to canvass in elections, to serve as political hostesses, to seek and dispense political patronage. They?did so routinely long before the eighteenth and deep into the nineteenth century. Patrician women had such?far-reaching political influence, it had been argued recently, that they actually stood to lose by expansion of the electorate to include women. Fruitful as this new historiography has been, however, it has also been criticized?for its focus on the machinations of high politics and its inattention to ideology. Given the widespread hostility?to “public” women in the eighteenth century, was female political activity quite so unproblematic as these new studies tend to assume? Anna Clark has pointed out that celebration of elite politicking neglects both the condition of ordinary women and the devastating contemporary attacks on just this sort of upper-class influence peddling.?

3. The author suggests which of the following about the “expansion of the electorate to include women” in eighteenth-century Britain??

A. It might have reduced women’s incentive to engage in such political activities as boycotts and riots.?

B. It might have reduced the political power of some people who had exerted great influence.?

C. It would have been unlikely to overturn the aristocracy’s political control of the country.?

D. It would likely have extended the vote only to aristocratic women.?

E. It was not an issue addressed by men who were engaged in politics.?

4. According to the passage, the approach taken by contemporary historians to the issue of the?political role of eighteenth-century women differs from that taken by earlier historians in that contemporary historians ?

A. see women’s involvement in eighteenth-century politics as commonplace?

B. argue that eighteenth-century women had considerable political autonomy?

C. note the singular political achievements of a few aristocratic women in the eighteenth century?

D. view the political situation of eighteenth-century women as significantly different from that of ?nineteenth-century women?

E. stress the political opportunities that were available for non aristocratic eighteenth-century women?

5. The author would most likely agree with which of the following statements about political acts?performed by eighteenth-century women??

A. They had little influence on the outcome of elections.?

B. They were aimed largely at the expansion of the electorate.?

C. They probably were discouraged by men with political aspirations.?

D. They represented a new development in British society.?

E. They were sometimes perceived as being negative.?

Question 6 is based on this passage.?

The long-term success of organ transplants that do not provoke a negative reaction from the immune ?system within six months of being transplanted is higher than that of transplants that do provoke an early?negative reaction. Using new drugs to suppress immune responses, it is possible to decrease the proportion of transplant recipients who experience early negative reactions. Therefore, the use of such drugs should increase?the long-term success rate of organ transplants.?

6. The argument given is most vulnerable to which of the following criticisms??

A. It confuses changing the proportion of people who experience a certain reaction with changing the number of people who experience that reaction.?

B. It treats evidence about one group of people as though it justified a conclusion about another unrelated group of people.?

C. It proceeds as if establishing a correlation between two phenomena is sufficient to establish a causal?relationship between those phenomena.?

D. It assumes without warrant that since a strategy has proven successful over short periods that strategy?will be equally successful over the long term.?

E. It assumes without warrant that one way of decreasing the number of individuals who experience a?certain reaction is the only way of decreasing the number who experience that reaction.?

Questions 7 to 8 are based on this passage.

Snow algae, the most prolific and colorful microbial species colonizing snow and ice surfaces, have been studied in many polar and alpine settings. As part of their life cycle and as a mechanism of protection from high irradiation, snow algal species produce red pigment (carotenoids). Through this protective reaction, algal blooms color snow and ice surfaces and cause a darkening of glacial surfaces, which in turns leads to a decrease in surface albedo (a measure of the reflectivity of the Earth’s surface). Such a decrease of albedo may speed up?melting processes and is of special interest in Iceland, where glaciers are retreating fast and where albedo is also?affected by the presence of volcanic dust and ash on snow and ice surfaces.?

7. It can be inferred that the presence of volcanic dust and ash on snow surfaces in Iceland is likely to?

A. offset any decrease in albedo caused by snow algae?

B. slow the growth of snow algal species in the affected area?

C. lead to changes in the life cycle of local snow algal species?

D. have an effect on glacial melting similar to that of snow algae?

E. increase the number of microbial species colonizing Iceland’s snow surfaces?

8. According to the passage, snow algal species produce red pigments for which of the following reasons? ?

A. As an atypical adaptation in response to climate change?

B. As a mechanism of protection from extreme temperature?

C. As a normal phase of development in snow and ice habitats?

Questions 9 to 10 are based on this passage.

The fact that certain musical qualities were shared by African American and White jazz musicians in the mid-1950s was sometimes explained by claiming that jazz was “color-blind.” Yet a look at how the discourse of colorblindness was deployed in 1950s jazz periodicals helps explain why many African American jazz?musicians began to emphasize differences, rather than similarities, between the aesthetic styles of Black and?White musicians. The discourse of “color blindness” tended to exaggerate the permeability of racial boundaries?by failing to address the power relationships involved in a social climate with evasiveness on the meaning of?jazz. While the expression of color-blind sentiments was not necessarily disingenuous, structural racial stratification remained powerful beyond the bandstand.?

9. The passage suggests that some authors writing in 1950s jazz periodicals?

A. promoted a view of jazz that would remain influential well beyond the 1950s?

B. failed to grasp the full extent of the similarities between Black and White jazz musicians

C. were sincere in their belief that race played no role in shaping the aesthetic aspects of jazz?

D. criticized the general public’s obliviousness to the reality of racial boundaries within jazz?

E. claimed that the difference between Black and White musicians had been underestimated?

10. The author mentions “power relationships” primarily to ?

A. help summarize an argument that the author wishes to refute?

B. account for the inadequacy of a particular idea about jazz?

C. demonstrate a link between social and aesthetic factors affecting jazz musicians?

D. emphasize the commitment of some jazz musicians to a particular view of jazz?

E. cite evidence to support a claim about stylistic development within jazz in the 1950s