Real TOEFL Tests Vocabulary

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TPO-1
Groundwater
Paragraph
5: So
much
for unconsolidated
Paragraph 1: Groundwater is the word used to
sediments.
describe water that saturates the ground,
sediments, too, contain millions of minute
filling all the available spaces. By far the most
water-holding pores. This is because the gaps
abundant type of groundwater is meteoric
among the original grains are often not
water; this is the groundwater that circulates
totally plugged with
as part of the water cycle. Ordinary meteoric
also, parts of the original grains may become
water is water that has soaked into the ground
dissolved by percolating groundwater, either
from the surface, from precipitation (rain and
while consolidation is taking place or at any
snow) and from lakes and streams. There it
time afterwards. The result is that sandstone,
remains, sometimes for long periods, before
for example, can be as porous as the loose
emerging at the surface again. At first thought
sand from which it was formed.
Consolidated
(or
cementing
cemented)
chemicals;
it seems incredible that there can be enough

space in the solid ground underfoot to hold
9. The word plugged in the passage is closet
all this water.
in meaning to
washed
2. The word incredible in the passage is
dragged
closest in meaning to
filled up
confusing
soaked through
comforting
unbelievable
interesting
The Origins of Theater

Paragraph 1: In seeking to describe the origins
Paragraph 4: In lowland country almost any
of theater, one must rely primarily on
spot on the ground may overlie what was once
speculation, since there is little concrete
the bed of a river that has since become buried
evidence on which to draw. The most widely
by soil; if they are now below the waters
accepted
upper surface (the water table), the gravels
anthropologists in the late nineteenth and early
and sands of the former riverbed, and its
twentieth centuries, envisions theater as
sandbars, will be saturated with groundwater.
emerging out of myth and ritual. The process
theory,
championed
by
perceived by these anthropologists may be

7. The word overlie in the passage is closest
summarized briefly. During the early stages of
in meaning to
its development, a society becomes aware of
cover
forces that appear to influence or control its
change
food supply and well-being. Having little
separate
understanding of natural causes, it attributes
surround
both desirable and undesirable occurrences to
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supernatural or magical forces, and it searches
the first step has been taken toward theater as
for means to win the favor of these forces.
an
Perceiving an apparent connection between
entertainment
certain actions performed by the group and the
gradually replace the former mystical and
result it desires, the group repeats, refines and
socially efficacious concerns.
autonomous
activity,
and
and
aesthetic
thereafter
values
may
formalizes those actions into fixed ceremonies,

or rituals.
5. The word this in the passage refers to

the acting out of rites
1. The word championed in the passage is
the divorce of ritual performers from the
rest of society
changed
the separation of myths from rites
debated
the celebration of supernatural forces
created
supported
6. The word autonomous in the passage is

2. The word attributes in the passage is
artistic
important
ascribes
independent
leaves
established
limits
contrasts
Paragraph 6: But neither the human imitative

instinct nor a penchant for fantasy by itself
Paragraph 2: Stories (myths) may then grow
leads to an autonomous theater. Therefore,
up around a ritual. Frequently the myths
additional explanations are needed. One
include representatives of those supernatural
necessary condition seems to be a somewhat
forces that the rites celebrate or hope to
detached view of human problems. For
influence. Performers may wear costumes and
example, one sign of this condition is the
masks to represent the mythical characters or
appearance of the comic vision, since comedy
supernatural forces in the rituals or in
requires sufficient detachment to view some
accompanying celebrations. As a person
deviations from social norms as ridiculous
becomes more sophisticated, its conceptions
rather than as serious threats to the welfare of
of supernatural forces and causal relationships
the entire group. Another condition that
may change. As a result, it may abandon or
contributes to the development of autonomous
modify some rites. But the myths that have
theater is the emergence of the aesthetic sense.
grown up around the rites may continue as
For example, some early societies ceased to
part of the groups oral tradition and may even
consider certain
come to be acted out under conditions
well-being and abandoned them, nevertheless,
divorced from these rites. When this occurs,
they retained as parts of their oral tradition the
rites essential to
their
myths that had grown up around the rites and
visible
admired them for their artistic qualities rather
striking
than for their religious usefulness.

Paragraph 3: At the upper timberline the trees
10. The word penchant in the passage is
begin to become twisted and deformed. This is
particularly true for trees in the middle and
compromise
upper latitudes, which tend to attain greater
inclination
heights on ridges, whereas in the tropics the
tradition
trees reach their greater heights in the valleys.
respect
This is because middle - and upper- latitude

timberlines are strongly influenced by the
11. Why does the author mention comedy?
duration and depth of the snow cover. As the
To give an example of early types of theater
snow is deeper and lasts longer in the valleys,
To explain how theater helps a society
trees tend to attain greater heights on the
respond to threats to its welfare
ridges, even though they are more exposed to
To help explain why detachment is needed
high-velocity winds and poor, thin soils there.
for the development of theater
In the tropics, the valleys appear to be more
To show how theatrical performers become
favorable because they are less prone to dry
detached from other members of society
out, they have less frost, and they have deeper

soils.
Timberline Vegetation on Mountains
5. The word attain in the passage is closest
Paragraph 1: The transition from forest to
in meaning to
treeless tundra on a mountain slope is often a
require
dramatic one. Within a vertical distance of just
resist
a few tens of meters, trees disappear as a
achieve
life-form and are replaced by low shrubs,
endure
herbs, and grasses. This rapid zone of

transition is called the upper timberline or tree
6. The word they in the passage refers to
line. In many semiarid areas there is also a
valleys
lower timberline where the forest passes into
trees
steppe or desert at its lower edge, usually
heights
because of a lack of moisture.
ridges
1. The word dramatic in the passage is
7. The word prone in the passage is closest
in meaning to
gradual
adapted
complex
likely
difficult
space, complement their site, suit the climate,
resistant
and are economically feasible. The client who

pays for the building and defines its function
Paragraph 6: The most striking characteristic
is an important member of the architectural
of the plants of the alpine zone is their low
team.
growth form. This enables them to avoid the
contemporary buildings can be traced to both
worst rigors of high winds and permits them
clients and architects.
The
mediocre
design
of
many
to make use of the higher temperatures

immediately adjacent to the ground surface. In
2. The word feasible in the passage is closet
an area where low temperatures are limiting to
in meaning to
life, the importance of the additional heat near
in existence
the surface is crucial. The low growth form
without question
can also permit the plants to take advantage of
achievable
the insulation provided by a winter snow
most likely
cover. In the equatorial mountains the low

growth form is less prevalent.
3. The word enhance in the passage is

11. The word prevalent in the passage is
protect
improve
predictable
organize
widespread
match
successful
Paragraph 3: In order for the structure to
developed
achieve the size and strength necessary to

meet
its
purpose,
architecture
employs
TPO-3
methods of support that, because they are
Architecture
based on physical laws, have changed little
Paragraph
2:
Architecture
is
since people first discovered themeven
three-dimensional form. It utilizes space, mass,
while
texture,
dramatically.
line,
light,
and
color.
To
be
building
materials
The
have
worlds
changed
architectural
architecture, a building must achieve a
structures have also been devised in relation to
working harmony with a variety of elements.
the
Humans instinctively seek structures that will
Structures can be analyzed in terms of how
shelter and enhance their way of life. It is the
they deal with downward forces created by
work of architects to create buildings that are
gravity. They are designed to withstand the
not simply constructions but also offer
forces of compression (pushing together),
inspiration and delight. Buildings contribute to
tension
human life when they provide shelter, enrich
combination of these in different parts of the
objective
(pulling
limitations
apart),
of
materials.
bending,
or
availability. In the past, whole cities grew
structure.
from the arduous task of cutting and piling

5. The word devised in the passage is closest
stone upon. Some of the worlds finest stone
in meaning to
architecture can be seen in the ruins of the
combined
ancient Inca city of Machu Picchu high in the
created
eastern Andes Mountains of Peru. The
introduced
doorways and windows are made possible by
suggested
placing over the open spaces thick stone

beams that support the weight from above. A
Paragraph
4:
Even
development
in
structural invention had to be made before the
architecture has been the result of major
physical
limitations
technological changes. Materials and methods
overcome and new architectural forms could
of construction are integral parts of the design
be created. That invention was the arch, a
of architecture structures. In earlier times it
curved structure originally made of separate
was necessary to design structural systems
stone or brick segments. The arch was used by
suitable for the materials that were available,
the early cultures of the Mediterranean area
such as wood, stone, brick. Today technology
chiefly for underground drains, but it was the
has progressed to the point where it is possible
Romans who first developed and used the arch
to invent new building materials to suit the
extensively in aboveground structures. Roman
type of structure desired. Enormous changes
builders perfected the semicircular arch made
in materials and techniques of construction
of separate blocks of stone. As a method of
within the last few generations have made it
spanning space, the arch can support greater
possible to enclose space with much greater
weight than a horizontal beam. It works in
ease and speed and with a minimum of
compression to divert the weight above it out
material. Progress in this area can be
to the sides, where the weight is borne by the
measured by the difference in weight between
vertical elements on either side of the arch.
buildings built now and those of comparable
The arch is among the many important
size built one hundred years ago.
structural
characterized
6. The word integral is closet in meaning to
of
stone
could
breakthroughs
that
architecture
throughout
be
have
the
centuries.
essential
variable
10. The word arduous in the passage is
practical
independent
difficult
necessary
Paragraph 6: Much of the worlds great
skilled
architecture has been constructed of stone
shared
because of its beauty, permanence, and
Depletion of the Ogallala Aquifer
current withdrawal rates, much of the aquifer
Paragraph 3: The first wells were drilled into
will run dry within 40 years. The situation is
the Ogallala during the drought years of the
most critical in Texas, where the climate is
early 1930s. The ensuing rapid expansion of
driest, the greatest amount of water is being
irrigation agriculture, especially from the
pumped, and the aquifer contains the least
1950s onward, transformed the economy of
water. It is projected that the remaining
the region. More than 100,000 wells now tap
Ogallala water will, by the year 2030, support
the Ogallala. Modern irrigation devices, each
only 35 to 40 percent of the irrigated acreage
capable of spraying 4.5 million liters of water
in Texas that is supported in 1980.
a day, have produced a landscape dominated

by geometric patterns of circular green islands
6. The word unprecedented in the passage is
of crops. Ogallala water has enabled the High
Plains region to supply significant amounts of
difficult to control
the cotton, sorghum, wheat, and corn grown in
without any restriction
the United States. In addition, 40 percent of
unlike anything in the past
American grain-fed beef cattle are fattened
rapidly expanding
here.
7. The word virtually in the passage is
4. The word ensuing in the passage is closest
in meaning to
clearly
continuing
perhaps
surprising
frequently
initial
almost
subsequent
Paragraph 5: The reaction of farmers to the
Paragraph 4: This unprecedented development
inevitable depletion of the Ogallala varies.
of a finite groundwater resource with an
Many have been attempting to conserve water
almost negligible natural recharge ratethat
by irrigating less frequently or by switching to
is, virtually no natural water source to
crops that require less water. Others, however,
replenish the water supply has caused water
have adopted the philosophy that it is best to
tables in the region to fall drastically. In the
use the water while it is still economically
1930s, wells encountered plentiful water at a
profitable to do so and to concentrate on
depth of about 15 meters; currently, they must
high-value crops such as cotton. The incentive
be dug to depths of 45 to 60 meters or more.
of the farmers who wish to conserve water is
In places, the water table is declining at a rate
reduced by their knowledge that many of their
of a meter a year, necessitating the periodic
neighbors are profiting by using great amounts
deepening of wells and the use of ever
of water, and in the process are drawing down
-more-powerful pumps. It is estimated that at
the entire regions water supplies.
often found in mid-successional stages, not in

10. The word inevitable in the passage is
the climax community. Once a redwood forest
matures, for example, the kinds of species and
unfortunate
the number of individuals growing on the
predictable
forest floor are reduced. In general, diversity,
unavoidable
by
final
Mathematical models of ecosystems likewise
itself,
does
not
ensure
stability.
suggest that diversity does not guarantee

ecosystem stabilityjust the opposite, in fact.
The Long-Term Stability of Ecosystems
A more complicated system is, in general,
Paragraph 1: Plant communities assemble
more likely than a simple system to break
themselves flexibly, and their particular
down. A fifteen-speed racing bicycle is more
structure depends on the specific history of the
likely to break down than a childs tricycle.
area. Ecologists use the term succession to

refer to the changes that happen in plant
8. The word guarantee in the passage is
communities and ecosystems over time. The
first community in a succession is called a
increase
pioneer community, while the long-lived
ensure
community at the end of succession is called a
favor
climax community. Pioneer and successional
complicate
plant communities are said to change over

periods
from
to
500
years.
These
Paragraph
6:
Ecologists
are
especially
changesin plant numbers and the mix of
interested to know what factors contribute to
speciesare cumulative. Climax communities
the resilience of communities because climax
themselves change but over periods of time
communities all over the world are being
greater than about 500 years.
severely damaged or destroyed by human

activities. The destruction caused by the
1. The word particular in the passage is
volcanic explosion of Mount St. Helens, in the
northwestern United States, for example, pales
natural
in comparison to the destruction caused by
final
humans. We need to know what aspects of a
specific
community
complex
communitys resistance to destruction, as well
are
most
important
to
the
as its recovery.
Paragraph 5: Even the kind of stability defined
as simple lack of change is not always
10. The word pales in the passage is closest
associated with maximum diversity. At least
in meaning to
in temperate zones, maximum diversity is
increases proportionally
differs
in urge to migrate. Deer may move from
loses significance
high-elevation browse areas in summer down
is common
to the lowland areas in late fall. Even with

snow
on
the
ground,
the
high
bushy
Paragraph 7: Many ecologists now think that
understory is exposed; also snow and wind
the relative long-term stability of climax
bring down leafy branches of cedar, hemlock,
communities comes not from diversity but
red alder, and other arboreal fodder.
from the patchiness of the environment, an

environment that varies from place to place
3. The word inhibits in the passage is closest
supports more kinds of organisms than an
in meaning to
environment
consists of
that
is
uniform.
local
population that goes extinct is quickly
combines
replaced by immigrants from an adjacent
restricts
community. Even if the new population is of a
establishes
different species, it can approximately fill the

niche vacated by the extinct population and
Paragraph 5: The causes of this population
keep the food web intact.
rebound are consequences of other human

actions.
First,
the
major
predators
of
12The word adjacent in the passage is
deerwolves, cougar, and lynxhave been
greatly
foreign
conservation has been insured by limiting
stable
times for and types of hunting. But the most
fluid
profound reason for the restoration of high
neighboring
population numbers has been the fate of the
reduced
in
numbers.
Second,
forests. Great tracts of lowland country

deforested by logging, fire, or both have
TPO-4
become ideal feeding grounds of deer. In
Deer Populations of the Puget Sound
addition to finding an increase of suitable
Paragraph 2: Nearly any kind of plant of the
browse, like huckleberry and vine maple,
forest understory can be part of a deer's diet.
Arthur Einarsen, longtime game biologist in
Where the forest inhibits the growth of grass
the Pacific Northwest, found quality of browse
and other meadow plants, the black-tailed deer
in the open areas to be substantially more
browses on huckleberry, salal, dogwood, and
nutritive. The protein content of shade-grown
almost any other shrub or herb. But this is
vegetation, for example, was much lower than
fair-weather
that for plants grown in clearings.
feeding.
What
keeps
the
black-tailed deer alive in the harsher seasons

of
plant
decay
and
dormancy?
One
compensation for not hibernating is the built
10The word rebound in the passage is

decline
difficulty of access has been interpreted by
recovery
some as a sign that magical-religious activities
exchange
were performed there.
movement
3 The word principal in the passage is
Cave Art in Europe
major
Paragraph 1: The earliest discovered traces of
likely
art are beads and carvings, and then paintings,
well protected
from sites dating back to the Upper Paleolithic
distinct
period. We might expect that early artistic

efforts would be crude, but the cave paintings
Paragraph 3: The subjects of the paintings are
of Spain and southern France show a marked
mostly animals. The paintings rest on bare
degree of skill. So do the naturalistic paintings
walls, with no backdrops or environmental
on slabs of stone excavated in southern Africa.
trappings. Perhaps, like many contemporary
Some of those slabs appear to have been
peoples, Upper Paleolithic men and women
painted as much as 28,000 years ago, which
believed that the drawing of a human image
suggests that painting in Africa is as old as
could cause death or injury, and if that were
painting in Europe. But painting may be even
indeed their belief, it might explain why
older than that. The early Australians may
human figures are rarely depicted in cave art.
have painted on the walls of rock shelters and
Another explanation for the focus on animals
cliff faces at least 30,000 years ago, and
might be that these people sought to improve
maybe as much as 60,000 years ago.
their luck at hunting. This theory is suggested

by evidence of chips in the painted figures,
1The word marked in the passage is closest
perhaps made by spears thrown at the
in meaning to
drawings. But if improving their hunting luck
considerable
was the chief motivation for the paintings, it is
surprising
difficult to explain why only a few show signs
limited
of having been speared. Perhaps the paintings
adequate
were inspired by the need to increase the

supply of animals. Cave art seems to have
Paragraph 2: The researchers Peter Ucko and
reached a peak toward the end of the Upper
Andree Rosenfeld identified three principal
Paleolithic period, when the herds of game
locations of paintings in the caves of western
were decreasing.
Europe: (1) in obviously inhabited rock

shelters and cave entrances; (2) in galleries
5The word trappings in the passage is
immediately off the inhabited areas of caves;
and (3) in the inner reaches of caves, whose
conditions
problems
gushers, were common in the past. Gas
influences
pressure gradually dies out, and oil is pumped
decorations
from the well. Water or steam may be pumped

down adjacent wells to help push the oil out.
At a refinery, the crude oil from underground
Petroleum Resources
is separated into natural gas, gasoline,
Paragraph 1: Petroleum, consisting of crude
kerosene, and various oils. Petrochemicals
oil and natural gas, seems to originate from
such as dyes, fertilizer, and plastic are also
organic
manufactured from the petroleum.
matter
in
marine
sediment.
Microscopic organisms settle to the seafloor

and accumulate in marine mud. The organic
5 The word adjacent in the passage is
matter may partially decompose, using up the
dissolved oxygen in the sediment. As soon as
nearby
the oxygen is gone, decay stops and the
existing
remaining organic matter is preserved.
special
deep
1The word accumulate in the passage is

Paragraph 4: As oil becomes increasingly
grow up
difficult to find, the search for it is extended
build up
into
spread out
development of the oil field on the North
break apart
Slope of Alaska and the construction of the
more-hostile
environments.
The
Alaska pipeline are examples of the great

valuable
expense and difficulty involved in new oil
underground accumulations of oil, and oil
discoveries. Offshore drilling platforms extend
fields are regions underlain by one or more oil
the search for oil to the oceans continental
pools. When an oil pool or field has been
shelvesthose
discovered, wells are drilled into the ground.
regions at the edges of the continents. More
Permanent towers, called derricks, used to be
than one-quarter of the worlds oil and almost
built to handle the long sections of drilling
one-fifth of the worlds natural gas come from
pipe. Now portable drilling machines are set
offshore, even though offshore drilling is six
up and are then dismantled and removed.
to seven times more expensive than drilling on
When the well reaches a pool, oil usually rises
land. A significant part of this oil and gas
up the well because of its density difference
comes from under the North Sea between
with water beneath it or because of the
Great Britain and Norway.
Paragraph
3:
Oil
pools
are
gently
sloping
submarine
pressure of expanding gas trapped above it.

Although this rise of oil is almost always
9The word sloping in the passage is closest
carefully controlled today, spouts of oil, or
in meaning to
shifting
TPO-5
inclining
Minerals and Plants
forming
Paragraph 2: Mineral deficiencies can often be
rolling
detected by specific symptoms such as

chlorosis (loss of chlorophyll resulting in
Paragraph 6: Moreover, getting petroleum out
yellow or white leaf tissue), necrosis (isolated
of the ground and from under the sea and to
dead
the
(development of deep red pigmentation of
consumer
can
create
environmental
patches),
or
stem),
anthocyanin
problems anywhere along the line. Pipelines
leaves
carrying oil can be broken by faults or
development of woody tissue in an herbaceous
landslides, causing serious oil spills. Spillage
plant. Soils are most commonly deficient in
from huge oil-carrying cargo ships, called
nitrogen and phosphorus. Nitrogen-deficient
tankers, involved in collisions or accidental
plants exhibit many of the symptoms just
groundings (such as the one off Alaska in
described. Leaves develop chlorosis; stems are
1989) can create oil slicks at sea. Offshore
short
platforms may also lose oil, creating oil slicks
discoloration occurs on stems, petioles, and
that drift ashore and foul the beaches, harming
lower
the environment. Sometimes, the ground at an
plants are often stunted, with leaves turning a
oil field may subside as oil is removed. The
characteristic dark green, often with the
Wilmington field near Long Beach, California,
accumulation of anthocyanin. Typically, older
has subsided nine meters in 50 years;
leaves are affected first as the phosphorus is
protective barriers have had to be built to
mobilized to young growing tissue. Iron
prevent seawater from flooding the area.
deficiency
Finally, the refining and burning of petroleum
between veins in young leaves.
and
stunted
formation
slender,
leaf
surfaces.
is
and
growth,
and
anthocyanin
Phosphorus-deficient
characterized
by
chlorosis
and its products can cause air pollution.

Advancing
technology
and
strict
laws,
2. The word exhibit in the passage is closest
however, are helping control some of these
in meaning to
adverse environmental effects.
fight off
show
11The word foul in the passage is closest in
cause
meaning to
spread
reach
flood
Paragraph 3: Much of the research on nutrient
pollute
deficiencies is based on growing plants
alter
hydroponically, that is, in soilless liquid

nutrient solutions. This technique allows
researchers to create solutions that selectively
omit certain nutrients and then observe the
resulting effects on the plants. Hydroponics
concentrations of metals may afford some
has applications beyond basic research, since
protection against plant-eating insects and
it facilitates the growing of greenhouse
microbial pathogens.
vegetables during winter. Aeroponics, a

technique in which plants are suspended and
8. Why does the author mention herbs,
the roots misted with a nutrient solution, is
shrubs, and trees?
another method for growing plants without
To provide examples of plant types that
soil.
cannot
tolerate
high
levels
of
harmful
minerals.
5. The word facilitates in the passage is
To show why so many plants are hyper
accumulators.
slows down
To help explain why hyper accumulators
affects
can be found in so many different places.
makes easier
To emphasize that hyper accumulators
focuses on
occur in a wide range of plant types.
7. The word suspended in the passage is
9. The word afford in the passage is closest
in meaning to
grown
offer
protected
prevent
spread out
increase
hung
remove
Paragraph 5: Scientists have known for some

time
that
certain
plants,
called
hyper
The Origin of the Pacific Island People
accumulators, can concentrate minerals at
Paragraph 2: Speculation on the origin of
levels a hundredfold or greater than normal. A
these Pacific islanders began as soon as
survey
accumulators
outsiders encountered them, in the absence of
identified that 75 percent of them amassed
solid linguistic, archaeological, and biological
nickel, cobalt, copper, zinc, manganese, lead,
data, many fanciful and mutually exclusive
and cadmium are other minerals of choice.
theories were devised. Pacific islanders are
Hyper accumulators run the entire range of the
variously thought to have come from North
plant world. They may be herbs, shrubs, or
America, South America, Egypt, Israel, and
trees. Many members of the mustard family,
India, as well as Southeast Asia. Many older
spurge family, legume family, and grass
theories implicitly deprecated the navigational
family are top hyper accumulators. Many are
abilities and overall cultural creativity of the
found in tropical and subtropical areas of the
Pacific islanders. For ex ample, British
world,
anthropologists G. Elliot Smith and W. J.
of
known
where
hyper
accumulation
of
high
Perry assumed that only Egyptians would
islands in the first place, domesticated plants
have been skilled enough to navigate and
and gardening skills suited to often marginal
colonize the Pacific. They inferred that the
conditions, and a varied inventory of fishing
Egyptians even crossed the Pacific to found
implements
the great civilizations of the New World
generally believed that these prerequisites
(North
1947
originated with peoples speaking Austronesian
Norwegian adventurer Thor Heyerdahl drifted
languages (a group of several hundred related
on a balsa-log raft westward with the winds
languages) and began to emerge in Southeast
and currents across the Pacific from South
Asia by about 5000 B.C.E. The culture of that
America to prove his theory that Pacific
time, based on archaeology and linguistic
islanders were Native Americans (also called
reconstruction, is assumed to have had a broad
American Indians). Later Heyerdahl suggested
inventory of cultivated plants including taro,
that the Pacific was peopled by three
yarns, banana, sugarcane, breadfruit, coconut,
migrations: by Native Americans from the
sago, and rice. Just as important, the culture
Pacific Northwest of North America drifting
also possessed the basic foundation for an
to Hawaii, by Peruvians drifting to Easter
effective
Island, and by Melanesians. In 1969 he
outrigger canoes and a variety of fishing
crossed the Atlantic in an Egyptian-style reed
techniques that could be effective for overseas
boat to prove Egyptian influences in the
voyaging.
and
South
America).
In
and
techniques.
maritime
It
adaptation,
is
now
including
Americas. Contrary to these theorists, the

overwhelming
evidence
of
physical
6. The word implements in the passage is
anthropology, linguistics, and archaeology
shows that the Pacific islanders came from
skills
Southeast Asia and were skilled enough as
tools
navigators to sail against the prevailing winds
opportunities
and currents.
practices
3. The word overwhelming in the passage is
Paragraph 4: Contrary to the arguments of
some that much of the pacific was settled by
powerful
Polynesians accidentally marooned after being
favorable
lost and adrift, it seems reasonable that this
current
feat
reasonable
colonization expeditions that set out fully
was
accomplished
by
deliberate
stocked with food and domesticated plants and

Paragraph 3: The basic cultural requirements
animals. Detailed studies of the winds and
for the successful colonization of the Pacific
currents using computer simulations suggest
islands include the appropriate boat-building,
that drifting canoes would have been a most
sailing, and navigation skills to get to the
unlikely means of colonizing the Pacific.
These expeditions were likely driven by
life-forms (living things that have cells with
population growth and political dynamics on
true nuclei) about 1.5 billion years ago, and
the home islands, as well as the challenge and
the origin of animals about 0.6 billion years
excitement of exploring unknown waters.
ago. The last event marks the beginning of the
Because all Polynesians, Micronesians, and
Cambrian
many
Austronesian
relatively late in the history of Earthin only
languages and grow crops derived from
the last 10 percent of Earths history. During a
Southeast Asia, all these peoples most
geologically brief 100-million-year period, all
certainly derived from that region and not the
modern animal groups (along with other
New World or elsewhere. The undisputed
animals that are now extinct) evolved. This
pre-Columbian presence in Oceania of the
rapid origin and diversification of animals is
sweet potato, which is a New World
often referred to as the Cambrian explosion.
Melanesians
speak
period.
Animals
originated
domesticate, has sometimes been used to

support Heyerdahls American Indians in the
1. The word significant in the passage is
Pacific theories. However, this is one plant
out of a long list of Southeast Asian
numerous
domesticates. As Patrick Kirch, an American
important
anthropologist, points out, rather than being
unexplained
brought by rafting South Americans, sweet
sudden
potatoes might just have easily been brought

back by returning Polynesian navigators who
2. The word relatively in the passage is
could have reached the west coast of South
America.
surprisingly
collectively
10. The word undisputed in the passage is
comparatively
characteristically
mysterious
unexpected
3. The word diversification in the passage is
acknowledged
significant
emergence of many varieties

steady decline in number
gradual increase in body size
The Cambrian Explosion
sudden disappearance
Paragraph 1: The geologic timescale is

marked by significant geologic and biological
Paragraph 2: Scientists have asked important
events, including the origin of Earth about 4.6
questions about this explosion for more than a
billion years ago, the origin of life about 3.5
century. Why did it occur so late in the history
billion years ago, the origin of eukaryotic
of Earth? The origin of multicellular forms of
life seems a relatively simple step compared to
affect
the origin of life itself. Why does the fossil

record not document the series of evolutionary
Paragraph
changes during the evolution of animals? Why
containing both soft-bodied and hard-bodied
did
animals provides evidence of the result of the
animal
life
evolve
so
quickly?
6:
third
fossil
formation
Paleontologists continue to search the
Cambrian explosion. This fossil formation,
fossil record for answers to these questions.
called the Burgess Shale, is in Yoho National

Park in the Canadian Rocky Mountains of
4. The period discussed in the passage is
British Columbia. Shortly after the Cambrian
referred to as an explosion because it
explosion,
occurred 0.6 billion years ago, late in
thousands of marine animals under conditions
Earths history
that favored fossilization. These fossil beds
was characterized by the unusually fast
provide evidence of about 32 modern animal
evolution of many new life-forms
groups, plus about 20 other animal body forms
was characterized by widespread animal
that are so different from any modern animals
extinction
that they cannot be assigned to any one of the
was characterized by violent volcanic
modern groups. These unassignable animals
eruptions
include a large swimming predator called
mud
slides
rapidly
buried
Anomalocaris and a soft-bodied animal called

Paragraph 3: One interpretation regarding the
Wiwaxia, which ate detritus or algae. The
absence of fossils during this important
Burgess Shale formation also has fossils of
100-million-year period is that early animals
many
were soft bodied and simply did not fossilize.
animal groups. For example, a well-known
Fossilization of soft-bodied animals is less
Burgess Shale animal called Sidneyia is a
likely
hard-bodied
representative of a previously unknown group
animals, but it does occur. Conditions that
of arthropods (a category of animals that
promote fossilization of soft-bodied animals
includes insects, spiders, mites, and crabs).
than
fossilization
of
extinct
representatives
of
modern
include very rapid covering by sediments that

c reate an environment that discourages
10.
Why
does
the
author
mention
decomposition. In fact, fossil beds containing
Anomalocans and Wiwaxia?
soft-bodied animals have been known for
To contrast predators with animals that eat
many years.
plants such as algae

To question the effects of rapid mud slides
7. The word promote in the passage is
on fossilization
To suggest that much is still unknown about
complicate
animals found in the Burgess Shale
prevent
To provide examples of fossils that cannot
encourage
be assigned to a modern animal group
11. Sidneyia is an example of
3. The word exploited in the passage is
a relative of Anomalocaris and Wiwaxia
a previously unknown Burgess Shale animal
utilized
an extinct member of a currently existing
recognized
category of animals
examined
an animal that cannot be assigned to any
fully understood
modern animal group

4. The word vastly in the passage is closet in
meaning to
TPO-6
quickly
Powering the Industrial Revolution
ultimately
Paragraph 2: The source had long been known
greatly
but not exploited. Early in the eighteenth
initially
century, a pump had come into use in which

expanding steam raised a piston in a cylinder,
Paragraph 4: By 1800 more than a thousand
and atmospheric pressure brought it down
steam engines were in use in the British Isles,
again when the steam condensed inside the
and Britain retained a virtual monopoly on
cylinder to form a vacuum. This atmospheric
steam engine production until the 1830s.
engine, invented by Thomas Savery and
Steam power did not merely spin cotton and
vastly improved by his partner, Thomas
roll iron; early in the new century, it also
Newcomen,
revolutionary
multiplied ten times over the amount of paper
principles, but it was so slow and wasteful of
that a single worker could produce in a day.
fuel that it could not be employed outside the
At the same time, operators of the first
coal mines for which it had been designed. In
printing presses run by steam rather than by
the 1760s, James Watt perfected a separate
hand found it possible to produce a thousand
condenser for the steam, so that the cylinder
pages in an hour rather than thirty. Steam also
did not have to be cooled at every stroke; then
promised
he devised a way to make the piston turn a
problem not fully solved by either canal boats
wheel and thus convert reciprocating (back
or turnpikes. Boats could carry heavy weights,
and forth) motion into rotary motion. He
but canals could not cross hilly terrain;
thereby transformed an inefficient pump of
turnpikes could cross the hills, but the
limited use into a steam engine of a thousand
roadbeds could not stand up under great
uses. The final step came when steam was
weights. These problems needed still another
introduced into the cylinder to drive the piston
solution, and the ingredients for it lay close at
backward
thereby
hand. In some industrial regions, heavily laden
increasing the speed of the engine and cutting
wagons, with flanged wheels, were being
its fuel consumption.
hauled by horses along metal rails; and the
embodied
as
well
as
forward,
to
eliminate
transportation
stationary steam engine was puffing in the
strict
factory and mine. Another generation passed
basic
before inventors succeeded in combining these
occasional
ingredients, by putting the engine on wheels

and the wheels on the rails, so as to provide a
Paragraph 2: This was before the steam
machine to take the place of the horse. Thus
locomotive, and canal building was at its
the railroad age sprang from what had already
height . The companies building the canals to
happened in the eighteenth century.
transport coal needed surveyors to help them

find the coal deposits worth mining as well as
9. The word retained in the passage is closest
to determine the best courses for the canals.
in meaning to
This job gave Smith an opportunity to study
gained
the fresh rock outcrops created by the newly
established
dug canal. He later worked on similar jobs
profited from
across the length and breadth of England, all
maintained
the while studying the newly revealed strata

and collecting all the fossils he could find.
Smith used mail coaches to travel as much as
William Smith
10,000 miles per year. In 1815 he published
Paragraph 1: In 1769 in a little town in Oxford
the first modern geological map, A Map of
shire, England, a child with the very ordinary
the Strata of England and Wales with a Part of
name of William Smith was born into the poor
Scotland, a map so meticulously researched
family of a village blacksmith. He received
that it can still be used today.
rudimentary village schooling, but mostly he

roamed his uncle's farm collecting the fossils
5. The word meticulously in the passage is
that were so abundant in the rocks of the
Cotswold hills . When he grew older, William
carefully
Smith taught himself surveying from books he
quickly
bought with his small savings, and at the age
frequently
of eighteen he was apprenticed to a surveyor
obviously
of the local parish. He then proceeded to teach

himself
geology,
and
when
he
was
Paragraph 4: As he collected fossils from
twenty-four, he went to work for the company
strata throughout England, Smith began to see
that was excavating the Somerset Coal Canal
that the fossils told a different story from the
in the south of England.
rocks. Particularly in the younger strata, the

rocks were often so similar that he had trouble
1. The word rudimentary in the passage is
distinguishing the strata, but he never had
trouble telling the fossils apart. While rock
thorough
between two consistent strata might in one
place be shale and in another sand stone, the
Cambrianwill never be found in Jurassic
fossils in that shale or sandstone were always
strata, nor a dinosaur in the Cambrian.
the same. Some fossils endured through so

many millions of years that they appear in
10. The word virtually in the passage is
many strata, but others occur only in a few
strata, and a few species had their births and
possibly
extinctions within one particular stratum.
absolutely
Fossils are thus identifying markers for
surprisingly
particular periods in Earth's history.
nearly
9. The word endured in the passage is closest
12. In mentioning trilobite, the author is
in meaning to
making which of the following points?
vanished
Fossils cannot be found in more than one
developed
rock stratum.
varied
Faunal succession can help put rock layers
survived
in relative temporal sequence.

Faunal succession cannot be applied to
Paragraph 5: Not only could Smith identify
different strata composed of the same kind of
rock strata by the fossils they contained, he
rock.
could also see a pattern emerging: certain
The presence of trilobite fossils makes it
fossils
difficult to date a rock.
always
appear
in
more
ancient
sediments, while others begin to be seen as the

strata become more recent. By following the
fossils, Smith was able to put all the strata of
Infantile Amnesia
England's
temporal
Paragraph 2: How might this inability to recall
sequence. About the same time, Georges
early experiences be explained? The sheer
Cuvier made the same discovery while
passage of time does not account for it; adults
studying the rocks around Paris. Soon it was
have excellent recognition of pictures of
realized that this principle of faunal (animal)
people who attended high school with them 35
succession was valid not only in England or
years earlier. Another seemingly plausible
France but virtually everywhere. It was
explanationthat
actually a principle of floral succession as well,
enduring
because
same
developmentalso is incorrect. Children two
transformation through time as did fauna.
and a half to three years old remember
Limestone may be found in the Cambrian or
experiences that occurred in their first year,
300 million years laterin the Jurassic
and eleven month olds remember some events
strata, but a trilobitethe ubiquitous marine
a year later. Nor does the hypothesis that
arthropod
infantile
earth
plants
that
into
relative
showed
had
its
the
birth
in
the
infants
memories
amnesia
at
reflects
do
this
not
point
form
in
repressionor
holding backof sexually charged episodes

explain
the
repression
phenomenon.
may
occur,
While
people
subsequently
such
cannot
8. The word perspective in the passage is
remember ordinary events from the infant and
toddler periods either.
system
theory
2. The word plausible in the passage is
source
viewpoint
flexible
believable
debatable
TPO-7
predictable
The Geologic History of the Mediterranean

Paragraph 1: In 1970 geologists Kenneth J.
3. The word phenomenon in the passage is
Hsu and William B.F. Ryan were collecting
research data while aboard the oceanographic
exception
research
repetition
objective of this particular cruise was to
occurrence
investigate the floor of the Mediterranean and
idea
to resolve questions about its geologic history.
vessel
Glomar
Challenger.
An
One question was related to evidence that the

Paragraph 5: A third likely explanation for
invertebrate fauna (animals without spines) of
infantile amnesia involves incompatibilities
the Mediterranean had changed abruptly about
between the ways in which infants encode
6 million years ago. Most of the older
information and the ways in which older
organisms were nearly wiped out, although a
children and adults retrieve it. Whether people
few hardy species survived. A few managed to
can remember an event depends critically on
migrate into the Atlantic. Somewhat later, the
the fit between the way in which they earlier
migrants returned, bringing new species with
encoded the information and the way in which
them. Why did the near extinction and
they later attempt to retrieve it. The better able
migrations occur?
the person is to reconstruct the perspective

from which the material was encoded, the
1The word objective in the passage is
more likely that recall will be successful.
achievement
7. The word critically in the passage is
requirement
purpose
fundamentally
feature
partially
consistently
Paragraph 4: The time had come to formulate
different types
a hypothesis. The investigators theorized that

about 20 million years ago, the Mediterranean
11. The word Turbulent in the passage is
was a broad seaway linked to the Atlantic by
two narrow straits. Crustal movements closed
Fresh
the straits, and the landlocked Mediterranean
Deep
began to evaporate. Increasing salinity caused
Violent
by
Temperate
the
evaporation
resulted
in
the
extermination of scores of invertebrate species.

Only a few organisms especially (salt water)
became so dense that the calcium sulfate of
Ancient Rome and Greece
the hard layer was precipitated. In the central
Paragraph 3: Certainly, in trying to explain the
deeper part of the basin, the last of the brine
Roman phenomenon, one would have to place
evaporated to precipitate more soluble sodium
great emphasis on this almost instinct for the
chloride (salt). Later, under the weight of
territorial imperative. Roman priorities lay in
overlying
flowed
the organization, exploitation, and defense of
plastically upward to form salt domes. Before
their territory. In all probability it was the
this happened, however, the Mediterranean
fertile plain of Latium, where the Latins who
was a vast desert 3,000 meters deep. Then,
founded Rome originated, that created the
about 5.5 million years ago came the deluge.
habits and skills of landed settlement, landed
As a result of crustal adjustments and faulting,
property,
the
the
administration, and a land-based society. From
Mediterranean now connects to the Atlantic,
this arose the Roman genius for military
opened, and water cascaded spectacularly
organization and orderly government. In turn,
back into the Mediterranean. Turbulent waters
a deep attachment to the land, and to the
tore into the hardened salt flats, broke them up,
stability which rural life engenders, fostered
and ground them into the pebbles observed in
the Roman virtues: gravitas, a sense of
the first sample taken by the Challenger. As
responsibility, peitas, a sense of devotion to
the
family and country, and iustitia, a sense of the
sediments,
Strait
basin
of
was
this
salt
Gibraltar,
refilled,
where
normal
marine
organisms returned. Soon layer of oceanic
landed
economy,
landed
natural order.
ooze began to accumulate above the old hard

layer.
6. The word fostered in the passage is closest

in meaning to
8. The word scores in the passage is closest
accepted
in meaning to
combined
members
introduced
large numbers
encouraged
populations
Paragraph 6: Yet it would be wrong to suggest
whose origins are not African but west Asian.
that Rome was somehow a junior partner in
Once the idea of planting diffused, Africans
Greco Roman civilization. The Roman
began to develop their own crops, such as
genius
new
certain varieties of rice, and they demonstrated
spheresespecially into those of law, military
a continued receptiveness to new imports. The
organization, administration, and engineering.
proposed areas of the domestication of
Moreover, the tensions that arose within the
African crops lie in a band that extends from
Roman state produced literary and artistic
Ethiopia across southern Sudan to West Africa.
sensibilities of the highest order. It was no
Subsequently, other crops, such as bananas,
accident that many leading Roman soldiers
were introduced from Southeast Asia.
was
projected
into
and statesmen were writers of high caliber.

1. The word diffused in the passage is
11. The word spheres in the passage is
emerged
abilities
was understood
areas
spread
combinations
developed
models
Paragraph 4: This technological shift cause
profound changes in the complexity of
Agriculture, Iron, and the Bantu Peoples
African societies. Iron represented power. In
Paragraph 1: There is evidence of agriculture
West Africa the blacksmith who made tools
in Africa prior to 3000 B.C. It may have
and weapons had an important place in society,
developed independently, but many scholars
often with special religious powers and
believe that the spread of agriculture and iron
functions. Iron hoes, which made the land
throughout Africa linked it to the major
more productive, and iron weapons, which
centers of the Near East and Mediterranean
made
world. The drying up of what is now the
symbolic meaning in a number of West Africa
Sahara desert had pushed many peoples to the
societies. Those who knew the secrets of
south into sub-Sahara Africa. These peoples
making iron gained ritual and sometimes
settled
political power.
at
first
hunting-and-gathering
in
bands,
scattered
although
the
warrior
more
powerful,
had
in
some places near lakes and rivers, people who
7. The word profound in the passage is
fished, with a more secure food supply, lived
in
fascinating
larger
population
concentrations.
Agriculture seems to have reached these
far-reaching
people from the Near East, since the first
necessary
domesticated crops were millets and sorghums
temporary
8. The word ritual in the passage is closest in
TPO-8
meaning to
The Rise of Teotihuacn
military
Paragraph 1: The city of Teotihuacn, which
physical
lay
ceremonial
modern-day Mexico City, began its growth by
permanent
200-100 B.C. At its height, between about
about
50
kilometers
northeast
of
A.D. 150 and 700, it probably had a

Paragraph 6: The diffusion of agriculture and
population of more than 125,000 people and
later of iron was accompanied by a great
covered at least 20 square kilometers. It had
movement of people who may have carried
over 2,000 apartment complexes, a great
these innovations. These people probably
market,
originated in eastern Nigeria. Their migration
workshops, an administrative center, a number
may have been set in motion by an increase in
of massive religious edifices, and a regular
population caused by a movement of peoples
grid pattern of streets and buildings. Clearly,
fleeing the desiccation, or drying up, of the
much planning and central control were
Sahara. They spoke a language, proto-Bantu
involved in the expansion and ordering of this
(Bantu means the people), which is the
great metropolis. Moreover, the city had
parent tongue of a language of a large number
economic and perhaps religious contacts with
of Bantu languages still spoken throughout
most parts of Mesoamerica (modern Central
sub-Sahara Africa. Why and how these people
America and Mexico).
large
number
of
industrial
spread out into central and southern Africa

remains a mystery, but archaeologists believe
1. The word massive in the passage is closest
that their iron weapons allowed them to
in meaning to
conquer their hunting-gathering opponents,
ancient
who still used stone implements. Still, the
carefully
process
very large
is
migrationor
uncertain,
simply
and
rapid
peaceful
demographic
carefully protected
growthmay have also caused the Bantu

explosion.
Paragraph 2: How did this tremendous

development take place, and why did it
11. The word fleeing in the passage is
happen in the Teotihuacn Valley? Among the
main factors are Teotihuacns geographic
afraid of
location on a natural trade route to the south
displaced by
and east of the Valley of Mexico, the obsidian
running away from
resources in the Teotihuacn Valley itself, and
responding to
the valleys potential for extensive irrigation.

The exact role of other factors is much more
difficult
to
pinpointfor
instance,
Teotihuacns religious significance as a
by the first century A.D.
shrine, the historical situation in and around

the Valley of Mexico toward the end of the
8. The word predominant in the passage is
first millennium B.C., the ingenuity and
foresightedness of Teotihuacns elite, and,
most aggressive
finally, the impact of natural disasters, such as
most productive
the volcanic eruptions of the late first
principal
millennium B.C.
earliest
3. The word pinpoint in the passage is

Extinction of the Dinosaurs
identify precisely
Paragraph 3: If true, though, why did
make an argument for
cold-blooded animals such as snakes, lizards,
describe
turtles, and crocodiles survive the freezing
understand
winters and torrid summers? These animals

are at the mercy of the climate to maintain a
4. The word ingenuity in the passage is
livable
body
temperature.
Its
hard
to
understand why they would not be affected,
ambition
whereas dinosaurs were left too crippled to
sincerity
cope, especially if, as some scientists believe,
faith
dinosaurs were warm-blooded. Critics also
cleverness
point out that the shallow seaways had

retreated from and advanced on the continents
Paragraph 3: This last factor is at least
numerous times during the Mesozoic, so why
circumstantially implicated in Teotihuacns
did the dinosaurs survive the climatic changes
rise. Prior to 200 B.C., a number of relatively
associated with the earlier fluctuations but not
small centers coexisted in and near the Valley
with this one? Although initially appealing,
of Mexico. Around this time, the largest of
the hypothesis of a simple climatic change
these
related to sea levels is insufficient to explain
centers,
Cuicuilco,
was
seriously
affected by a volcanic eruption, with much of
all the data.
its agricultural land covered by lava. With

Cuicuilco eliminated as a potential rival, any
4. The word cope in the passage is closest in
one of a number of relatively modest towns
meaning to
might have emerged as a leading economic
adapt
and political power in Central Mexico. The
move
archaeological evidence clearly indicates,
continue
though, that Teotihuacn was the center that
compete
did arise as the predominant force in the area
6. The word fluctuations in the passage is
Paragraph 6: In view of these facts, scientists
hypothesized that a single large asteroid, about
extremes
10 to 15 kilometers across, collided with Earth,
retreats
and the resulting fallout created the boundary
periods
lay. Their calculations show that the impact
variations
kicked up a dust cloud that cut off sunlight for

several months, inhibiting photosynthesis in
Paragraph 5: Ir has not been common at
plants; decreased surface temperatures on
Earths since the very beginning of the
continents to below freezing; caused extreme
planets history. Because it usually exists in a
episodes of acid rain;
metallic
preferentially
and significantly raised long-term global
incorporated in Earths core as the planet
temperatures through the greenhouse effect.
cooled and consolidated. Ir is found in high
This disruption of food chain and climate
concentrations in some meteorites, in which
would have eradicated the dinosaurs and other
the
organisms in less than fifty years.
state,
solar
composition
it
systems
is
was
original
preserved.
chemical
Even
today,
microscopic meteorites continually bombard
11. The word disruption in the passage is
Earth, falling on both land and sea. By
measuring how many of these meteorites fall
exhaustion
to Earth over a given period of time, scientists
disturbance
can estimate how long it might have taken to
modification
deposit the observed amount of Ir in the
disappearance
boundary clay. These calculations suggest that

a period of about one million years would
have been required. However, other reliable
Running Water on Mars?
evidence suggests that the deposition of the
Paragraph 1: Photographic evidence suggests
boundary clay could not have taken one
that liquid water once existed in great quantity
million
high
on the surface of Mars. Two types of flow
concentration of Ir seems to require a special
features are seen: runoff channels and outflow
explanation.
channels. Runoff channels are found in the
years.
So
the
unusually
southern highlands. These flow features are

9. The word bombard in the passage is
extensive systemssometimes hundreds of
kilometers in total lengthof interconnecting,
approach
twisting channels that seem to merge into
strike
larger, wider channels. They bear a strong
pass
resemblance to river systems on Earth, and
circle
geologists think that they are dried-up beds of

long-gone rivers that once carried rainfall on
Mars from the mountains down into the
3. The word relics in the passage is closest in
valleys. Runoff channels on Mars speak of a
meaning to
time
remains
sites
4 billion years ago (the age of the Martian
requirements
highlands), when the atmosphere was thicker,
sources
the
surface
warmer,
and
liquid
water
widespread.
4. The word miniature in the passage is
1. The word merge in the passage is closest
in meaning to
temporary
expand
small
separate
multiple
straighten out
familiar
combine
Paragraph 5: Aside from some small-scale
Paragraph 2: Outflow channels are probably
gullies (channels) found since 2000, which are
relics of catastrophic flooding on Mars long
inconclusive, astronomers have no direct
ago. They appear only in equatorial regions
evidence for liquid water anywhere on the
and
extensive
surface of Mars today, and the amount of
interconnected networks. Instead, they are
water vapor in the Martian atmosphere is tiny.
probably the paths taken by huge volumes of
Yet even setting aside the unproven hints of
water draining from the southern highlands
ancient oceans, the extent of the outflow
into the northern plains. The onrushing water
channels suggests that a huge total volume of
arising from these flash floods likely also
water existed on Mars in the past. Where did
formed
teardrop-shaped
all the water go? The answer may be that
islands(resembling the miniature versions
virtually all the water on Mars is now locked
seen in the wet sand of our beaches at low tide)
in the permafrost layer under the surface, with
that have been found on the plains close to the
more contained in the planets polar caps.
generally
the
do
not
odd
form
ends of the outflow channels. Judging from

the width and depth of the channels, the flow
11. The word hints in the passage is closest
rates
in meaning to
must
have
been
truly
enormousperhaps as much as a hundred
clues
times greater than the 105 tons per second
features
carried by the great Amazon river. Flooding
arguments
shaped the outflow channels approximately 3
effects
billion years ago, about the same times as the

northern volcanic plains formed.
TPO-9
ago. Research now indicates that sizable areas
Colonizing the Americas via the Northwest
of southeastern Alaska along the inner
Coast
continental shelf were not covered by ice
Paragraph 1: It has long been accepted that the
toward the end of the last Ice Age. One study
Americas were colonized by a migration of
suggests that except for a 250-mile coastal
peoples from Asia, slowly traveling across a
area between southwestern British Columbia
land bridge called Beringia (now the Bering
and Washington State, the Northwest Coast of
Strait between northeastern Asia and Alaska)
North America was largely free of ice by
during the last Ice Age. The first water craft
approximately 16,000 years ago. Vast areas
theory about this migration was that around
along the coast may have been deglaciated
11,000-12,000 years ago there was an ice-free
beginning around 16,000 years ago, possibly
corridor stretching from eastern Beringia to
providing a coastal corridor for the movement
the areas of North America south of the great
of plants, animals, and humans sometime
northern glaciers. It was this midcontinental
between 13,000 and 14,000 years ago.
corridor between two massive ice sheetsthe
7. The author's purpose in paragraph 4 is to
Laurentide to the east and the Cordilleran to
indicate that a number of recent geologic
the westthat enabled the southward migration.
studies seem to provide support for the coastal
But belief in this ice-free corridor began to
hypothesis
crumble
indicate that coastal and inland migrations
when
paleoecologist
Glen
MacDonald demonstrated that some of the
may have happened simultaneously
most important radiocarbon dates used to
explain why humans may have reached
support the existence of an ice-free corridor
America's northwest coast before animal s and
were incorrect. He persuasively argued that
plants did
such an ice-free corridor did not exist until
show that the coastal hypothesis may explain
much later, when the continental ice began its
how people first reached Alaska but it cannot
final retreat.
explain how people reached areas like modern

British Columbia and Washington State
2. The word persuasively in the passage is

8. The word Vast in the passage is closest in
aggressively
meaning to
inflexibly
Frozen
convincingly
Various
carefully
Isolated
Huge
Paragraph 4: More recent geologic studies

documented deglaciation and the existence of
Paragraph 5: The coastal hypothesis has
ice-free areas throughout major coastal areas
gained increasing support in recent years
of British Columbia, Canada, by 13,000 years
because the remains of large land animals,
such as caribou and brown bears, have been
chance
found in southeastern Alaska dating between
protection
10,000 and 12,500 years ago. This is the time
possibility
period in which most scientists formerly
incentive
believed the area to be inhospitable for

humans. It has been suggested that if the
Reflection in Teaching
environment were capable of supporting
Paragraph 1: Teachers, it is thought, benefit
breeding populations of bears, there would
from the practice of reflection, the conscious
have been enough food resources to support
act of thinking deeply about and carefully
humans. Fladmark and other believe that the
examining the interactions and events within
first human colonization of America occurred
the ir own classrooms. Educators T. Wildman
by boat along the Northwest Coast during the
and J. Niles (1987) describe a scheme for
very late Ice Age, possibly as early as 14,000
developing reflective practice in experienced
years ago. The most recent geologic evidence
teachers. This was justified by the view that
indicates that it may have been possible for
reflective practice could help teachers to feel
people to colonize ice-free regions along the
more intellectually involved in their role and
continental shelf that were still exposed by the
work in teaching and enable them to cope with
lower sea level between13,000 and 14,000
the
years ago.
uncertainty of knowledge in the discipline of
paucity
of
scientific
fact
and
the
teaching.
10. The word inhospitable in the passage is
1. The word justified in the passage is
not familiar
not suitable
supported
not dangerous
shaped
not reachable
stimulated
suggested
Paragraph 6: The coastal hypothesis suggests

an economy based on marine mammal hunting,
Paragraph 2: Wildman and Niles were
saltwater fishing gathering, and the use of
particularly interested in investigating the
watercraft. Because of the barrier of ice to the
conditions under which reflection might
east, the Pacific Ocean to the west, and
flourish-a subject on which there is little
populated areas to the north, there may have
guidance in the literature. They designed an
been a greater impetus for people to move in a
experimental strategy for a group of teachers
southerly direction.
in Virginia and worked with 40 practicing

teachers over several years. There were
12. The word impetus in the passage is
concerned that many would be drawn to these
new, refreshing conceptions of
teaching
only to find that the void between the
Paragraph 5: Wildman and Niles identify three
abstractions and the realities of teacher
principles that facilitate reflective practice in a
reflection is too great to bridge. Reflection on
teaching situation. The first is support from
a complex task such as teaching is not easy.
administrators
The teachers were taken through a program
enabling
of talking about teaching events, moving on to
requirements of reflective practice and how it
reflecting about specific issues in a supported,
relates to teaching students. The second is the
and later an independent, manner.
availability of sufficient time and space . The
in
an
teachers
education
to
system,
understand
the
teachers in the program described how they

3. The word flourish in the passage is closest
found it difficult to put aside the immediate
in meaning to
demands of others in order to give themselves
continue
the time they needed to develop their
occur
reflective skills. The third is the development
succeed
of a collaborative environment with support
apply
from
other
teachers.
Support
and
encouragement were also required to help

Paragraph 3: Wildman and Niles observed that
teachers in the program cope with aspects of
systematic reflection on teaching required a
their professional life with which they were
sound ability to understand classroom events
not comfortable. Wildman and Niles make a
in an objective
summary
manner. They describe the
comment:
Perhaps
the
most
initial understanding in the teachers with
important thing we learned is the idea of the
whom
teacher-as-reflective-practitioner
they
were
working
as
being
will
not
utilitarian and not rich or detailed enough
happen simply because it is a good or even
to drive systematic reflection.Teachers rarely
compelling idea.
have the time or opportunities to view their

own or the teaching of others in an objective
9. The word compelling in the passage is
manner. Further observation revealed the
tendency of teachers to evaluate events rather
commonly held
than review the contributory factors in a
persuasive
considered manner by, in effect, standing
original
outside the situation.
practical
6. The word objective in the passage is

The Arrival of Plant Life in Hawaii
unbiased
Paragraph 3: Lichens helped to speed the
positive
decomposition of the hard rock surfaces,
systematic
preparing a soft bed of soil that was
thorough
abundantly supplied with minerals that had
been carried in the molten rock from the
of flora evolved on Earth: the seed-bearing
bowels of Earth. Now, other forms of life
plants. This was a wonderful biological
could take hold: ferns and mosses (two of the
invention. The seed has an outer coating that
most ancient types of land plants) that flourish
surrounds the genetic material of the new
even in rock crevices. These plants propagate
plant,
by producing sporestiny fertilized cells that
concentrated supply of nutrients. Thus the
contain all the instructions for making a new
seeds
plantbut the spore are unprotected by any
enhanced over those of the naked spore. One
outer coating and carry no supply of nutrient.
type of seed-bearing plant, the angiosperm,
Vast numbers of them fall on the ground
includes all forms of blooming vegetation. In
beneath the mother plants. Sometimes they are
the angiosperm the seeds are wrapped in an
carried farther afield by water or by wind. But
additional layer of covering. Some of these
only those few spores that settle down in very
coats are hardlike the shell of a nutfor extra
favorable locations can start new life; the vast
protection. Some are soft and tempting, like a
majority fall on barren ground. By force of
peach or a cherry. In some angiosperms the
sheer numbers, however, the mosses and ferns
seeds are equipped with gossamer wings, like
reached Hawaii, survived, and multiplied.
the dandelion and milkweed seeds. These new
Some species developed great size, becoming
characteristics offered better ways for the seed
tree ferns that even now grow in the Hawaiian
to move to new habitats. They could travel
forests.
through the air, float in water, and lie dormant
and
inside
chances
this
of
covering
survival
are
is
greatly
for many months.

4. The word abundantly in the passage is
7. The word This in the passage refers to
occasionally
the spread of ferns and mosses in Hawaii
plentifully
the creation of the Hawaiian Islands
usefully
the evolution of ferns
fortunately
the development of plants that produce

seeds
5. The word propagate in the passage is

9. Why does the author mention a nut, a
multiply
peach, and a cherry?
emerge
To indicate that some seeds are less likely to
live
survive than others
evolve
To point out that many angiosperms can be

eaten
Paragraph 4: Many millions of years after
To provide examples of blooming plants
ferns evolved (but long before the Hawaiian
To illustrate the variety of coverings among
Islands were born from the sea), another kind
angiosperm seeds
high-fired ceramics of good quality. White

10. The word dormant in the passage is
wares produced in Hebei and Henan provinces
from the seventh to the tenth centuries evolved
hidden
into the highly prized porcelains of the Song
inactive
dynasty (AD. 960-1279), long regarded as one
underground
of the high points in the history of China's
preserved
ceramic industry. The tradition of religious

sculpture extends over most historical periods
but is less clearly delineated than that of stone
TPO-10
wares or porcelains, for it embraces the old
Chinese Pottery
custom of earthenware burial ceramics with
Paragraph 2: The function and status of
later
ceramics in China varied from dynasty to
ornament. Ceramic products also include
dynasty, so they may be utilitarian, burial,
lead-glazed tomb models of the Han dynasty,
trade-collectors',
objects,
three-color lead-glazed vessels and figures of
according to their quality and the era in which
the Tang dynasty, and Ming three -color
they were made. The ceramics fall into three
temple ornaments, in which the motifs were
broad typesearthenware, stoneware, and
outlined in a raised trail of slipas well as the
porcelainfor vessels, architectural items
many burial ceramics produced in imitation of
such as roof tiles, and modeled objects and
vessels made in materials of higher intrinsic
figures. In addition, there was an important
value.
or
even
ritual
religious
images
and
architectural
group of sculptures made for religious use, the

majority
of
which
were
produced
in
earthenware.
3. The word evolve in the passage is closest

in meaning to
divided
1 .The word status in the passage is closest
extended
in meaning to
developed
origin
vanished
importance
quality
Paragraph 4: Trade between the West and the
design
settled and prosperous Chinese dynasties

introduced
new
forms
and
different
Paragraph 3: The earliest ceramics were fired
technologies. One of the most far -reaching
to earthenware temperatures, but as early as
examples
the fifteenth century B.C., high-temperature
ninth-century AD. Chinese porcelain wares
stone wares were being made with glazed
imported into the Arab world. So admired
surfaces. During the Six Dynasties period (AD
were these pieces that they encouraged the
265-589), kilns in north China were producing
development of earthenware made in imitation
is
the
impact
of
the
fine
of porcelain and instigated research into the
mandarin ducks stood for wedded bliss; the
method of their manufacture. From the Middle
pine tree, peach, and crane are emblems of
East the Chinese acquired a blue pigment a
long life; and fish leaping from waves
purified form of cobalt oxide unobtainable at
indicated
that time in Chinathat contained only a low
examinations. Only when European decorative
level of manganese. Cobalt ores found in
themes were introduced did these meanings
China have a high manganese content, which
become obscured or even lost.
success
in
the
civil
service
produces a more muted blue-gray color. In the

seventeenth century, the trading activities of
8. The word whereas in the passage is
the Dutch East India Company resulted in vast
quantities of decorated Chinese porcelain
while
being brought to Europe, which stimulated
previously
and influenced the work of a wide variety of
surprisingly
wares, notably Delft. The Chinese themselves
because
adapted many specific vessel forms from the

West, such as bottles with long spouts, and
Paragraph 6: From early times pots were used
designed a range of decorative patterns
in both religious and secular contexts. The
especially for the European market.
imperial court commissioned work and in the

Yuan dynasty (A.D. 1279-1368) an imperial
6. The word instigate in the passage is
ceramic factory was established at Jingdezhen.
Pots played an important part in some
improved
religious ceremonies. Long and often lyrical
investigated
descriptions of the different types of ware
narrowed
exist that assist in classifying pots, although
caused
these sometimes confuse an already large and

complicated picture.
Paragraph 5: Just as painted designs on Greek

pots may seem today to be purely decorative,
12. The word these in the passage
whereas in fact they were carefully and
religious ceremonies
precisely worked out so that at the time, their
descriptions
meaning was clear, so it is with Chinese pots.
types of ware
To twentieth-century eyes, Chinese pottery
pots
refers to
may appear merely decorative, yet to the

Chinese the form of each object and its
adornment had meaning and significance. The
Variations in the Climate
dragon represented the emperor, and the
Paragraph 4: What the proxy records make
phoenix,
pomegranate
abundantly clear is that there have been
indicated fertility, and a pair of fish, happiness;
significant natural changes in the climate over
the
empress;
the
timescales longer than a few thousand years.
on the climate. Thus we need to be able to
Equally striking, however, is the relative
include these in our deliberations. Some
stability of the climate in the past 10,000 years
current analyses conclude that volcanoes and
(the Holocene period).
solar activity explain quite a considerable

amount of the observed variability in the
5. The word striking in the passage is closest
period from the seventeenth to the early
in meaning to
twentieth centuries, but that they cannot be
noticeable
invoked to explain the rapid warming in recent
confusing
decades.
true
unlikely
10. The word deliberations in the passage is

Paragraph 5: To the extent that the coverage
records
of the global climate from these records can
discussions
provide a measure of its true variability, it
results
should at least indicate how all the natural
variations
causes of climate change have combined.

These include the chaotic fluctuations of the
11. The word invoked in the passage is
atmosphere, the slower but equally erratic
behavior of the oceans, changes in the land
demonstrated
surfaces, and the extent of ice and snow. Also
called upon
included will be any variations that have
supported
arisen from volcanic activity, solar activity,
expected
and, possibly, human activities.

7. The word erratic in the passage is closest
Seventeenth-Century European Economic
in meaning to
Growth
dramatic
Paragraph 1: In the late sixteenth century and
important
into the seventeenth, Europe continued the
unpredictable
growth that had lifted it out of the relatively
common
less prosperous medieval period (from the

mid-400s to the late 1400s). Among the key
Paragraph 7: In addition to the internal
factors behind this growth were increased
variability of the global climate system itself,
agricultural productivity and an expansion of
there is the added factor of external influences,
trade.
such as volcanoes and solar activity. There is a

growing body of opinion that both these
2. The word key in the passage is closest in
physical variations have a measurable impact
meaning to
historical
forms. In fact, a lac k of understanding
many
concerning the purposes of Egyptian art has
important
often led it to be compared unfavorably with
hidden
the art of other cultures: Why did the

Egyptians not develop sculpture in which the
Paragraph 4: Increased agricultural production
body turned and twisted through space like
in turn facilitated rural industry, an intrinsic
classical Greek statuary? Why do the artists
part of the expansion of industry. Woolens
seem to get left and right confused? And why
and
did
textile
manufacturers,
in
particular,
they
not
discover
the
geometric
utilized rural cottage (in-home) production,
perspective as European artists did in the
which took advantage of cheap and plentiful
Renaissance? The answer to such questions
rural labor. In the German states, the ravages
has nothing to do with a lac k of skill or
of the Thirty Years' War (1618-1648) further
imagination on the part of Egyptian artist sand
moved textile production into the countryside.
everything to do with the purposes for which
Members of poor peasant families spun or
they were producing their art.
wove cloth and linens at home for scant

remuneration in an attempt to supplement
1. The word vital in the passage is closest in
meager family income.
meaning to
attractive
6. The word meager in the passage is closest
essential
in meaning to
usual
very necessary
practical
very low
traditional
Paragraph2:
primary
three-dimensional
The
majority
representations,
of
whether
standing, seated, or kneeling, exhibit what is

called frontality: they face straight ahead,
TPO-11
neither twisting nor turning. When such
Ancient Egyptian Sculpture
statues are viewed in isolation, out of their
Paragraph 1: In order to understand ancient
original context and without knowledge of
Egyptian art, it is vital to know as much as
their function, it is easy to criticize them for
possible of the elite Egyptians' view of the
their rigid attitudes that remained unchanged
world and the functions and contexts of the art
for three thousand years. Frontality is,
produced for them. Without this knowledge
however, directly related to the functions of
we can appreciate only the formal content of
Egyptian statuary and the contexts in which
Egyptian art, and we will fail to understand
the statues were set up. Statues were created
why it was produced or the concepts that
not for their decorative effect but to play a
shaped it and caused it to adopt its distinctive
primary role in the cults of the gods, the king,
and the dead. They were designed to be put in
and the body and between the legs in standing
places where these beings could manifest
figures or the legs and the seat in seated ones
themselves in order to be the recipients of
was not normally cut away. From a practical
ritual actions. Thus it made sense to show the
aspect this protected the figures against
statue looking ahead at what was happening in
breakage
front of it, so that the living per former of the
images a sense of strength and power, usually
ritual could interact with the divine or
enhanced by a supporting back pillar. By
deceased recipient. Very often such statues
contrast, wooden statues were carved from
were enclosed in rectangular shrines or wall
several pieces of wood that were pegged
niches whose only opening was at the front,
together to form the finished work, and metal
making it natural for the statue to display
statues were either made by wrapping sheet
frontality. Other statue s were designed to be
metal around a wooden core or cast by the lost
placed within an architectural setting, for
wax process. The arms could be held away
instance, in front of the monumental entrance
from the body and carry separate items in their
gateways to temples known as pylons, or in
hands; there is no back pillar. The effect is
pillared courts, where they would be placed
altogether lighter and freer than that achieved
against or between pillar s: the ir frontality
in stone, but because both perform the same
worked perfectly within the architectural
function, formal wooden and metal statues
context.
still display frontality.
5. The word context in the passage is closest
9. The word core in the passage is closest in
in meaning to
meaning to
connection
material
influence
layer
environment
center
requirement
frame
7. The word they I n t h e p ass age refers t o
Paragraph 4: Apart from statues representing
statues
deities, kings, and named members of the e
gateways
lite that can be called formal, there is another
temples
group of three -dimensional represent at ions
pillared courts
that
and
depicts
psychologically
generic
figures,
gives
the
frequently
servants, from the none lite population. The

Paragraph 3: Statues were normally made of
function of these is quite different. Many are
stone, wood, or metal. Stone statues were
made to be put in the tombs of the e lite in
worked from single rectangular blocks of
order to serve the tomb owners in the afterlife.
material and retained the compactness of the
Unlike formal statue s that are limited to static
original shape. The stone between the arms
pose s o f standing, sitting, and kneeling, these
figures depict a wide range of actions, such as
found that caged migratory birds became very
grinding grain, baking bread, producing pots,
restless at about the time they would normally
and making music, and they are shown in
have begun migration in the wild. Furthermore,
appropriate poses, bending and squatting as
he noticed that as they fluttered around in the
they carry out their tasks.
cage, they often launched themselves in the

direction of their normal migratory route. He
11. The word depicts in the passage is closest
then set up experiments with caged starlings
in meaning to
and found that their orientation was , in fact,
imagines
in the proper migratory direction except when
classifies
the sky was overcast, at which times there was
elevates
no clear direction to their restless movements.
portrays
Kramer surmised, therefore, that they were

orienting according to the position of the Sun.
To test this idea, he blocked their view of the
Orientation and Navigation
Sun and used mirrors to change its apparent
Paragraph 1: To South Americans, robins are
position.
birds that fly north every spring. To North
circumstances, the birds oriented with respect
Americans, the robins simply vacation in the
to the new Sun. They seemed to be using the
south each winter. Furthermore, they fly to
Sun as a compass to determine direction. At
very specific places in South America and will
the time, this idea seemed preposterous. How
often come back to the same trees in North
could a bird navigate by the Sun when some
American yards the following spring. The
of us lose our way with road maps? Obviously,
question is not why they would leave the cold
more testing was in order.
He
found
that
under
these
of winter so much as how they find their way

around. The question perplexed people for
4. The word preposterous in the passage is
years, until, in the 1950s, a German scientist
named
unbelievable
Gustave
Kramer
provided
some
answers and, in the process, raised new
inadequate
questions.
limited
creative
2. The word perplexed in the passage is

Paragraph 7: There is accumulating evidence
defeated
indicating that birds navigate by using a wide
interested
variety of environmental cues. Other areas
puzzled
under
occupied
landmarks, coastlines, sonar, and even smells.
investigation
include
magnetism,
The studies are complicated by the fact that

Paragraph 3: Early in his research, Kramer
the data are sometimes contradictory and the
mechanisms apparently change from time to
short-term
time. Furthermore, one sensory ability may
well designed
back up another.
Paragraph 3: The hypothesis that begging calls
12. The word accumulating in the passage is
have evolved properties that reduce their
potential for attracting predators yields a
new
prediction:
increasing
experience high rates of nest predation should
convincing
produce softer begging signals of higher
extensive
frequency than nestlings of other species less
baby
birds
of
species
that
often victimized by nest predators. This

prediction was supported by data collected in
Begging by Nestlings
one survey of 24 species from an Arizona
Paragraph 2: Further evidence for the costs of
forest, more evidence that predator pressure
begging comes from a study of differences in
favors the evolution of begging calls that are
the begging calls of warbler species that nest
hard to detect and pinpoint.
on the ground versus those that nest in the

relative safety of trees. The young of
6. The word prediction in the passage is
ground-nesting warblers produce begging
cheeps of higher frequencies than do their
surprise
tree-nesting relatives. These higher-frequency
discovery
sounds do not travel as far, and so may better
explanation
conceal the individuals producing them, who
expectation
are especially Vulnerable to predators in their

ground nests. David Haskell created artificial
7. The word pinpoint in the passage is
nests with clay eggs and placed them on the
ground beside a tape recorder that played the
observe
begging calls of either tree -nesting or of
locate exactly
ground-nesting
copy accurately
warblers.
The
eggsadvertised by the tree-nesters' begging
recognize
calls were found bitten significantly more

often than the eggs associated with the
Paragraph 4: Given that predators can make it
ground-nesters' calls.
costly to beg for food, what benefit do

begging
nestlings
derive
from
their
3. The word artificial in the passage is
communications? One possibility is that a
noisy baby bird provides accurate signals of
attractive
its real hunger and good health, making it
not real
worthwhile for the listening parent to give it
food in a nest where several other offspring
pictured
are usually available to be fed. If this
imagined
hypothesis is true, then it follows that

nestlings should adjust the intensity of their
Paragraph 6: Occasionally one can determine
signals in relation to the signals produced by
whether stone tools were used in the right
their nest mates, who are competing for
hand or the left, and it is even possible to
parental
experimentally
assess how far back this feature can be traced.
deprived baby robins are placed in a nest with
In stone tool making experiments, Nick Toth,
normally fed siblings, the hungry nestlings
a right-hander, held the core (the stone that
beg more loudly than usual but so do their
would become the tool) in his left hand and
better-fed siblings, though not as loudly as the
the hammer stone in his right. As the tool was
hungrier birds.
made, the core was rotated clockwise, and the
attention.
When
flakes, removed in sequence, had a little

8. The word derive in the passage is closest
crescent of cortex (the core's outer surface) on
in meaning to
the side. Toth's knapping produced 56 percent
require
flakes with the cortex on the right, and 44
gain
percent left-oriented flakes. A left-handed
use
toolmaker would produce the opposite pattern.
produce
Toth has applied these criteria to the similarly

made pebble tools from a number of early
sites (before 1.5 million years) at Koobi Fora,
TPO-12
Kenya, probably made by Homo habilis. At
Which Hand Did They Use?
seven sites he found that 57 percent of the
Paragraph 2: Cave art furnishes other types of
flakes were right-oriented, and 43 percent left,
evidence
a pattern almost identical to that produced
of
this
phenomenon.
Most
engravings, for example, are best lit from the
today.
left, as befits the work of right-handed artists,

who generally prefer to have the light source
10. The word criteria in the passage is
on the left so that the shadow of their hand
does not fall on the tip of the engraving tool or
standards
brush. In the few cases where an Ice Age
findings
figure is depicted holding something, it is
ideas
mostly, though not always, in the right hand.
techniques
3. The phrase depicted in the passage is

Transition to Sound in Film
identified
Paragraph 1: The shift from silent to sound
revealed
film at the end of the 1920s marks, so far, the
most important transformation in motion
live music helped to bring the film its wide
picture history. Despite all the highly visible
international fame.
technological developments in theatrical and

home delivery of the moving image that have
3. The word paradoxes in the passage is
occurred over the decades since then, no
single innovation has come close to being
difficulties
regarded as a similar kind of watershed. In
accomplishments
nearly every language, however the words are
parallels
phrased, the most basic division in cinema
contradictions
history lies between films that are mute and

Paragraph 3: Beyond that, the triumph of
films that speak.
recorded sound has overshadowed the rich

1. The word regarded in the passage is
diversity
of
technological
experiments with the visual image that were
analyzed
going forward simultaneously in the 1920s.
considered
New color processes, larger or differently
altered
shaped
criticized
projections, even television, were among the
screen
sizes,
and
aesthetic
multiple-screen
developments invented or tried out during the

Paragraph 2: Yet this most fundamental
period, sometimes with startling success. The
standard of historical periodization conceals a
high costs of converting to sound and the early
host of paradoxes. Nearly every movie theater,
limitations of sound technology were among
however modest, had a piano or organ to
the factors that suppressed innovations or
provide musical accompaniment to silent
retarded advancement in these other areas.
pictures. In many instances, spectators in the
The introduction of new screen formats was
era
experienced
put off for a quarter century, and color, though
alongside
utilized over the next two decades for special
movies' visual images, from the Japanese
productions, also did not become a norm until
benshi
the 1950s.
before
elaborate
dialogue
recorded
aural
sound
presentations
(narrators)
narratives
crafting
to
multivoiced
original
Musical
compositions performed by symphony -size
6. The word overshadowed in the passage is
orchestras in Europe and the United States. In
Berlin, for the premiere performance outside
distracted from
the Soviet Union of The Battleship Potemkin,
explained
film director Sergei Eisenstein worked with
conducted
Austrian
coordinated with
composer
Edmund
Meisel
(1874-1930) on a musical score matching

sound to image; the Berlin screenings with
Paragraph 4: Though it may be difficult to
Euphrates, for example, have brought fertile
imagine from a later perspective, a strain of
silts and water to the inhabitants of their lower
critical opinion in the 1920s predicted that
valleys.
sound film would be a technical novelty that
increasingly controlled by human intervention,
would soon fade from sight, just as had many
creating a need for international river-basin
previous attempts, dating well back before the
agreements. The filling of the Ataturk and
First World War, to link images with recorded
other dams in Turkey has drastically reduced
sound. These critics were making a common
flows in the Euphrates, with potentially
assumptionthat
serious consequences for Syria and Iraq.
inadequacies
of
the
earlier
technological
efforts
Today,
river
discharges
are
(poor
synchronization, weak sound amplification,
2. The word drastically in the passage is
fragile sound recordings) would invariably
occur again. To be sure, their evaluation of the
obviously
technical flaws in 1920s sound experiments
unfortunately
was not so far off the mark, yet they neglected
rapidly
to take into account important new forces in
severely
the motion picture field that, in a sense, would

not take no for an answer.
Paragraph 5: Deserts contain large amounts of

groundwater when compared to the amounts
9. The word neglected in the passage is
they hold in surface stores such as lakes and
rivers.
failed
groundwater enters the hydrological cycle
needed
feeding the flows of streams, maintaining lake
started
levels, and being recharged (or refilled)
expected
through surface flows and rainwater. In recent

years,
But
only
groundwater
small
has
fraction
become
of
an
increasingly important source of freshwater

Water in the Desert
for desert dwellers. The United Nations
Paragraph 2: A rid lands, surprisingly, contain
Environment Programme and the World Bank
some of the worlds largest river systems,
have
such as the Murray -Darling in Australia, the
groundwater resources of arid lands and to
Rio Grande in North America, the Indus in
develop appropriate extraction techniques.
Asia, and the Nile in Africa. These rivers and
Such programs are much needed because in
river systems are known as exogenous
many arid lands there is only a vague idea of
because their sources lie outside the arid zone.
the extent of groundwater resources. It is
They are vital for sustaining life in some of
known, however, that the distribution of
the driest parts of the world. For centuries, the
groundwater is uneven, and that much of it
annual floods of the Nile, Tigris, and
lies at great depths.
funded
attempts
to
survey
the
Paragraph 7: Water does not remain immobile

5. The word dwellers in the passage is
in an aquifer but can seep out at springs or
leak into other aquifers. The rate of movement
settlements
may be very slow: in the Indus plain, the
farmers
movement of saline (salty) ground waters has
tribes
still not reached equilibrium after 70 years of
inhabitants
being
tapped.
The
mineral
content
of
groundwater normally increases with the

Paragraph 6: Groundwater is stored in the pore
depth, but even quite shallow aquifers can be
spaces and joints of rocks and unconsolidated
highly saline.
(unsolidified) sediments or in the openings

widened through fractures and weathering.
10. The word immobile in the passage is
The water-saturated rock or sediment is
known as an aquifer. Because they are
enclosed
porous, sedimentary rocks, such as sandstones
permanent
and conglomerates, are important potential
motionless
sources of groundwater. Large quantities of
intact
water may also be stored in lime stones when

joints and cracks have been enlarged to form
cavities.
Most
limestone
and
sandstone
TPO-13
aquifers are deep and extensive but may
Types of Social Groups
contain ground waters that are not being
Paragraph 1: Life places us in a complex web
recharged. Most shallow aquifers in sand and
of relationships with other people. Our
gravel deposits produce lower yields, but they
humanness arises out of these relationships in
can be rapidly recharged. Some deep aquifers
the course of social interaction. Moreover, our
are known as fossil waters. The term fossil
humanness must be sustained through social
describes water that has been present for
interactionand fairly constantly so. When an
several thousand years. These aquifers became
association continues long enough for two
saturated more than 10,000 years ago and are
people to become linked together by a
no longer being recharged.
relatively stable set of expectations, it is called

a relationship.
7. The word fractures in the passage is

1. The word complex in the passage is
streams
cracks
delicate
storms
elaborate
earthquakes
private
common
as a device to bring into line individuals

within
whose behavior goes beyond that allowed by
bonds:
the particular group. Even more important,
ties.
primary groups define social reality for us by
Expressive ties are social links formed when
structuring our experiences. By providing us
we emotionally invest ourselves in and
with definitions of situations, they elicit from
commit ourselves to other people. Through
our behavior that conforms to group-devised
association with people who are meaningful to
meanings. Primary groups, then, serve both as
us, we achieve a sense of security, love,
carriers of social norms and as enforcers of
acceptance,
them.
Paragraph
2:
relationships
expressive
People
by
ties
are
bound
two
types
and
instrumental
companionship,
of
and
personal
worth. Instrumental ties are social links

formed when we cooperate with other people
10. The word deviate in the passage is
to achieve some goal. Occasionally, this may
mean
detract
working
with
instead
of
against
competitors. More often, we simply cooperate
advance
with others to reach some end without
select
endowing the relationship with any larger
depart
significance.
3. The word endowing in the passage is
Biological Clocks
Paragraph
leaving
reproduction usually require the activities of
exposing
animals to be coordinated with predictable
providing
events around them. Consequently, the timing
Understanding
and rhythms of biological functions must
1:
Survival
and
successful
closely match periodic events like the solar

Paragraph 7: Third, primary groups are
day, the tides, the lunar cycle, and the seasons.
fundamental because they serve as powerful
The relations between animal activity and
instruments for social control. Their members
these periods, particularly for the daily
command and dispense many of the rewards
rhythms, have been of such interest and
that are so vital to us and that make our lives
importance that a huge
seem worthwhile. Should the use of rewards
Amount of work has been done on them and
fail, members can frequently win by rejecting
the special research field of chronobiology has
or threatening to ostracize those who deviate
emerged. Normally, the constantly changing
from the primary group's norms? For instance,
levels of an animal's activity sleeping,
some social groups employ shunning (a
feeding, moving, reproducing, metabolizing,
person can remain in the community, but
and producing enzymes and hormones, for
others are forbidden to interact with the person)
exampleare
well
coordinated
with
environmental rhythms, but the key question
environmental cues, those measured for the
is whether the animal's schedule is driven by
horseshoe crabs in these conditions were not
external cues, such as sunrise or sunset, or is
exactly 24 hours. Such a rhythm whose period
instead dependent somehow on internal timers
is approximately but not exactly a day is
that themselves gene rate the observed
called circadian. For different individual
biological
universally,
horseshoe crabs, the circadian period ranged
biologists accept the idea that all eukaryotes (a
from 22.2 to 25.5 hours. A particular animal
category that includes most organisms except
typically maintains its own characteristic cycle
bacteria and certain algae) have internal
duration with great precision for many days.
clocks. By isolating organisms completely
Indeed, stability of the biological clock's
from external periodic cues, biologists learned
period is one of its major features, even when
that organisms have internal clocks. For
the organism's environment is subjected to
instance, apparently normal daily periods of
considerable changes in factors, such as
biological activity were maintained for about a
temperature, that would be expected to affect
week by the fungus Neurospora when it was
biological activity strongly. Further evidence
intentionally isolated from all geophysical
for persistent internal rhythms appears when
timing cues while orbiting in a space shuttle.
the usual external cycles are shiftedeither
The continuation of biological rhythms in an
experimentally or by rapid east-west travel
organism without external cues attests to its
over great distances. Typically, the animal's
having an internal clock.
daily internally generated cycle of activity
rhythms.
Almost
continues without change. As a result, its

1. The word Consequently in the passage is
activities are shifted relative to the external
cycle
Therefore
disorienting effects of this mismatch between
Additionally
external time cues and internal schedules may
Nevertheless
persist, like our jet lag, for several days or
Moreover
weeks
of
until
the
new
certain
environment.
cues
such
as
The
the
daylight/darkness cycle reset the organism's

Paragraph
2:
When
crayfish
are
kept
continuously in the dark, even for four to five
clock to synchronize with the daily rhythm of

the new environment.
months, their compound eyes continue to

adjust on a daily schedule for daytime and
4. The word persistent in the passage is
nighttime vision. Horseshoe crabs kept in the
dark continuously for a year were found to
adjusted
maintain a persistent rhythm of brain activity
strong
that similarly adapts their eyes on a daily
enduring
schedule for bright or for weak light. Like
predicted
almost all daily cycles of animals deprived of
9. The word duration in the passage is closest
An external cue such as sunrise
in meaning to
the daily rhythm of an animal
length
the local solar day
feature
a cycle whose period is precisely 24 hours
process
repetition
12. The word sustained in the passage is

Paragraph 3: Animals need natural periodic
intense
signals like sunrise to maintain a cycle whose
uninterrupted
period is precisely 24 hours. Such an external
natural
cue not only coordinates an animal's daily
periodic
rhythms with particular features of the local

solar day but alsobecause it normally does
so day after day -seems to keep the internal
Methods of Studying Infant Perception
clock's period close to that of Earth's rotation.
Paragraph 1: In the study of perceptual
Yet despite this synchronization of the period
abilities of infants, a number of techniques are
of the internal cycle, the animal's timer itself
used to determine infants' responses to various
continues to have its own genetically built-in
stimuli. Because they cannot verbalize or fill
period close to, but different from, 24 hours.
out questionnaires, indirect techniques of
Without the external cue, the difference
naturalistic observation are used as the
accumulates and so the internally regulated
primary means of determining what infants
activities
drift
can see, hear, feel, and so forth. Each of these
continuously, like the tides, in relation to the
methods compares an infant's state prior to the
solar day. This drift has been studied
introduction of a stimulus with its state during
extensively in many animals and in biological
or immediately following the stimulus. The
activities ranging from the hatching of fruit fly
difference between the two measures provides
eggs to wheel running by squirrels. Light has a
the researcher with an indication of the level
predominating influence in setting the clock.
and duration of the response to the stimulus.
Even a fifteen-minute burst of light in
For example, if a uniformly moving pattern of
otherwise sustained darkness can reset an
some sort is passed across the visual field of a
animal's circadian rhythm. Normally, internal
neonate
rhythms
regular
movements of the eye occur. The occurrence
environmental cycles. For instance, if a
of these eye movements provides evidence
homing pigeon is to navigate with its Sun
that the moving pattern is perceived at some
compass, its clock must be properly set by
level by the Newborn. Similarly, changes in
cues provided by the daylight/darkness cycle.
the infant's general level of motor activity
of
are
the
kept
biological
in
step
day
by
(newborn),
repetitive
following
turning the head, blinking the eyes, crying,

11. The word it in the passage refer s to
and so forth have been used by researchers
as visual indicators of the infant's perceptual
Paragraph
3:
Observational
abilities.
techniques
have
become
assessment
much
more
sophisticated, reducing the limitations just

2. The word uniformly in the passage is
presented. Film analysis of the infant's
responses, heart and respiration rate monitors,
clearly
and nonnutritive sucking devices are used as
quickly
effective
consistently
perception. Film analysis permits researchers
occasionally
to carefully study the infant's responses over
tools
in
understanding
infant
and over and in slow motion. Precise

Paragraph 2: Such techniques, however, have
measurements can be Made of the length and
limitations. First, the observation may be
frequency of the infant's attention between
unreliable in that two or more observers may
two stimuli. Heart and respiration monitors
not agree that the particular response occurred,
provide the investigator with the number of
or to what degree it occurred. Second,
heartbeats or breaths taken when a new
responses are difficult to quantify. Often the
stimulus is presented. Numerical increases are
rapid and diffuse movements of the infant
used as quantifiable indicators of heightened
make it difficult to get an accurate record of
interest in the new stimulus. Increases in
the number of responses. The third, and most
nonnutritive sucking were first used as an
potent, limitation is that it is not possible to be
assessment measure by researchers in 1969.
certain that the infant's response was due to
They devised an apparatus that connected a
the stimulus presented or to a change from no
baby's pacifier to a counting device. As
stimulus to a stimulus. The infant may be
stimuli were presented, changes in the infant's
responding to aspects of the stimulus different
sucking
than those identified by the investigator.
Behavior were recorded. Increases in the
Therefore, when observational assessment is
number of sucks were used as an indicator of
used as a technique for studying infant
the infant's attention to or preference for a
perceptual abilities, care must be taken not to
given visual display.
overgeneralize from the data or to rely on one

or two studies as conclusive evidence of a
8. The word quantifiable in the passage is
particular perceptual ability of the infant.
visual
5. The word potent in the passage is closest in
permanent
meaning to
meaningful
artificial
measurable
powerful
common
similar
TPO-14
in meaning to
Children and Advertising
establish the truth of

about
approve of
misleading tactics that advertisers employ is
understand
centered
criticize
Paragraph
2:
on
General
the
use
concern
of
exaggeration.
Consumer protection groups and parents
Paragraph 3: Fantasy is one of the more
believe that children are largely ill-equipped
common techniques in advertising that could
to recognize such techniques and that often
possibly
exaggeration is used at the expense of product
Child-oriented advertisements are more likely
information. Claims such as the best or
to
better than can be subjective and misleading;
advertisements aimed at adults. In a content
even adults may be unsure as to their meaning.
analysis of Canadian television, the author
They represent the advertiser's opinions about
Stephen Kline observed that nearly all
the qualities of their products or brand and, as
commercials for character toys featured
fantasy
consequence,
are
difficult
to
verify.
mislead
include
magic
play.
young
and
audience.
fantasy
Children
have
than
strong
or
imaginations and the use of fantasy brings
counterbalance an exaggerated claim with a
their ideas to life, but children may not be
disclaimer a qualification or condition on
adept enough to realize that what they are
the claim. For example, the claim that
viewing is unreal. Fantasy situations and
breakfast cereal has a health benefit may be
settings
accompanied by the disclaimer when part of a
children's
nutritionally balanced breakfast. However,
advertising.
research has shown that children often have
cereals have, for many years, been found to be
difficulty understanding disclaimers: children
especially fond of fantasy techniques, with
may interpret the phrase when part of a
almost nine out of ten including such content.
nutritionally balanced breakfast to mean that
Generally, there is uncertainty as to whether
the cereal is required as a necessary part of a
very young children can distinguish between
balanced
George
fantasy and reality in advertising. Certainly,
Comstock suggested that less than a quarter of
rational appeals in advertising aimed at
children between the ages of six and eight
children are limited, as most advertisements
years old understood standard disclaimers
use
used in many toy advertisements and that
psychological states or associat ions.
Advertisers
sometimes
breakfast.
The
offset
author
are
frequently
attention,
used
particularly
Advertisements
emotional
and
to
indirect
for
in
attract
food
breakfast
appeals
to
disclaimers are more readily comprehended

when presented in both audio and visual
6. The word adept in the passage is closest in
formats. Nevertheless, disclaimers are mainly
meaning to
presented in audio format only.
responsible
skillful
2. The word verify in the passage is closest
patient
believe that the characters used to advertise
curious
breakfast cereals are knowledgeable about

Paragraph 4: The use of celebrities such as
cereals, and children accept such characters as
singers and movie stars is common in
credible sources of nutritional information.
advertising. The intention is for the positively
This finding was even more marked for heavy
perceived attributes of the celebrity to be
viewers of television. In addition, children feel
transferred to the advertised product and for
validated in
the two to become automatically linked in the
their choice of a product when a celebrity
audience's mind. In children's advertising, the
endorses that product. A study of children in
celebrities are often animated figures from
Hong Kong, however, found that the presence
popular cartoons. In the recent past, the role of
of
celebrities in advertising to children has often
negatively affect the children's perceptions of
been conflated with the concept of host selling.
a product if the children did not like the
Host selling involves blending advertisements
celebrity in question.
celebrities
in
advertisements
could
with regular programming in a way that makes

it difficult to distinguish one from the other.
11. The word credible in the passage is c
Host selling occurs, for example, when a
losest in meaning to
children's s how about a cartoon lion contains
helpful
an ad in which the same lion promotes a
believable
breakfast
Dale
valuable
Kunkel showed that the practice of host
familiar
cereal.
The
psychologist
selling reduced children's ability to distinguish

between advertising and program material. It
was also found that older children responded
Maya Water Problems
more positively to products in host selling
Paragraph 3: Although southern Maya areas
advertisements.
received more rainfall than northern areas,

problems of water were paradoxically more
9. The word attributes in the passage is
severe in the wet south. While that made
things hard for ancient Maya living in the
evaluations
south, it has also made things hard for modern
attitudes
archaeologists
actions
understanding why ancient droughts caused
characteristics
bigger problems in the wet south than in the
who
have
difficulty
dry north. The likely explanation is that an

Paragraph 5: Regarding the appearance of
area of underground freshwater underlies the
celebrities in advertisements that do not
Yucatan Peninsula, but surface elevation
involve host selling, the evidence is mixed.
increases from north to south, so that as one
Researcher Charles Atkin found that children
moves south the land surface lies increasingly
higher above the water table. In the northern
people for a period of 18 months. At the city
peninsula the elevation is sufficiently low that
of Coba the Maya built dikes around a lake in
the ancient Maya were able to reach the water
order to raise its level and make their water
table at deep sinkholes called cenotes, or at
supply more reliable. But the inhabitants of
deep caves. In low-elevation north coastal
Tikal and other cities dependent on reservoirs
areas without sinkholes, the Maya would have
for drinking water would still have been in
been able to get down to the water table by
deep trouble if 18 months passed without rain
digging wells up to 75 feet (22 meters) deep.
in a prolonged drought. A shorter drought in
But much of the south lies too high above the
which they exhausted their stored food
water table for cenotes or wells to reach down
supplies might already have gotten them in
to it. Making matters worse, most of the
deep trouble, because growing crops required
Yucatan Peninsula consists of karst, a porous
rain rather than reservoirs.
sponge-like limestone terrain where rain runs

straight into the ground and where little or no
10. The word prolonged in the passage is
surface water remains available.
unusual
4. The word paradoxically in the passage is
unexpected
extended
usually
disastrous
surprisingly
understandably
11. The word exhausted in the passage is
predictably
used up
Paragraph 4: How did those dense southern
reduced
Maya populations deal with the resulting
wasted
water problem? It initially surprises us that
relied upon
many of their cities were not built next to the

rivers but instead on high terrain in rolling
uplands. The explanation is that the Maya
Pastoralism in Ancient Inner Eurasia
excavated depressions, or modified natural
Paragraph 1: Pastoralism is a lifestyle in
depressions, and then plugged up leaks in the
which economic activity is based primarily on
karst by plastering the bottoms of the
livestock. Archaeological evidence suggests
depressions in order to create reservoirs,
that by 3000 B.C., and perhaps even earlier,
which collected rain from large plastered
there had emerged on the steppes of Inner
catchment basins and stored it for use in the
Eurasia the distinctive types of pastoralism
dry season. For example, reservoirs at the
that were to dominate the region's history for
Maya city of Tikal held enough water to meet
several millennia. Here, the horse was already
the drinking water needs of about 10,000
becoming the animal of prestige in many
regions, though sheep, goats, and cattle could
even linguistic features. By the late fourth
also play a vital role. It is the use of horses for
millennium B.C., there is already evidence of
transportation and warfare that explains why
large culture zones reaching from Eastern
Inner Eurasian pastoralism proved the most
Europe to the western borders of Mongolia.
mobile and the most militaristic of all major
Perhaps the most striking sign of mobility is
forms of pastoralism. The emergence and
the fact that by the third millennium B.C.,
spread of pastoralism had a profound impact
most pastoralists in this huge region spoke
on the history of Inner Eurasia, and also,
related languages ancestral to the modern Indo
indirectly, on the parts of Asia and Europe just
-European
outside this area. In particular, pastoralism
mobility and range of pastoral societies
favors a mobile lifestyle, and this mobility
explain, in part, why so many linguists have
helps to explain the impact of pastoralist
argued that the Indo European languages
societies on this part of the world.
began their astonishing expansionist career not
languages.
The
remarkable
among farmers in Anatolia (present -day

1. The word prestige in the passage is closest
Turkey), but among early pastoralists from
in meaning to
Inner Eurasia. Such theories imply that the
interest
Indo -European languages evolved not in
status
Neolithic
demand
(10,000 to 3,000 B.C.) Anatolia, but among
profit
the foraging communities of the cultures in the

region of the Don and Dnieper rivers, which
3. The word profound in the passage is
took up stock breeding and began to exploit
the neighboring steppes.
strange
positive
7. The word striking in the passage is closest
direct
in meaning to
far-reaching
reliable
noticeable
Paragraph
3:
consequences.
Nomadism
It
means
has
that
further
pastoralist
convincing
violent
societies occupy and can influence very large

territories. This is particularly true of the horse
8. The word exploit in the passage is closest
pastoralism that emerged in the Inner Eurasian
in meaning to
steppes, for this was the most mobile of all
use to advantage
major forms of pastoralism. So, it is no
depart from
accident
pay attention to
that
with
the
appearance
of
pastoralist societies there appear large areas

that share similar cultural, ecological, and
travel across
TPO-15
whales, and, perhaps, it worked for many of
A Warm-Blooded Turtle
the larger dinosaurs. It apparently works, in a
Paragraph 2: A warm-blooded turtle may
smaller way, for some other sea turtles. Large
seem
terms.
loggerhead and green turtles can maintain
can
their body temperature at a degree or two
maintain a body temperature of between 25
above that of the surrounding water, and
and 26C (77 -79F) in seawater that is only
gigantothermy is probably the way they do it.
8C (46.4F). Accomplishing this feat requires
Muscular activity helps, too, and an actively
adaptations both to generate heat in the turtles
swimming green turtle may be 7C (12.6F)
body and to keep it from escaping into the
warmer than the waters it swims through.
to
be
Nonetheless,
a
an
contradiction
adult
in
leatherback
surrounding waters. Leatherbacks apparently

do not generate internal heat the way we do,
5. The w o r d bulk in the passage is closest
or the way birds do, as a by -product of
in meaning to
cellular metabolism. A leatherback may be
strength
able to pick up some body heat by
effort
Basking at the surface; its dark, almost black
activity
body color may help it to absorb solar
mass
radiation. However, most of its internal heat

comes from the action of its muscles.
Paragraph 4: Gigantothermy, though, would

not be enough to keep a leatherback warm in
3. The word feat in the passage is closest in
cold northern waters. It is not enough for
meaning to
whales, which supplement it with a thick layer
remarkable achievement
of insulating blubber (fat). Leatherbacks do
common transformation
not have blubber, but they do have a reptilian
daily activity
equivalent: thick, oil -saturated skin, with a
complex solution
layer of fibrous, fatty tissue just beneath it.

Insulation protects the leatherback everywhere
Paragraph 3: Leatherbacks keep their body
but on its head and flippers. Because the
heat in three different ways. The first, and
flippers are comparatively thin and blade-like,
simplest, is size. The bigger the animal is, the
they are the one part of the leatherback that is
lower its surface -to-volume ratio; for every
likely to become chilled. There is not much
ounce of body mass, there is proportionately
that the turtle can do about this without
less surface through which heat can escape.
compromising the aerodynamic shape of the
An adult leatherback is twice the size of the
flipper. The problem is that as blood flows
biggest cheloniid sea turtles and will therefore
through the turtles flippers, it risks losing
take longer to cool off. Maintaining a high
enough heat to lower the animals central
body temperature through sheer bulk is called
body Temperature when it returns. The
gigantothermy. It works for elephants, for
solution is to allow the flippers to cool down
without drawing heat away from the rest of
in meaning to
the
specific
turtles
body.
The
leatherback
accomplishes this by arranging the blood
unlimited
vessels in the base of its flipper into a
reasonable
countercurrent exchange system.
long
6. The word it in paragraph 4 refers to
Paragraph 7: An asteroid of this size would be
the problem
expected to leave an immense crater, even if
blood
the asteroid itself was disintegrated by the
the turtle
impact. The intense heat of the impact would
body temperature
produce heat-shocked quartz in many types of

rock. Also, large blocks thrown aside by the
impact
would
form
secondary
craters
Mass Extinctions
surrounding the main crater. To date, several
Paragraph 3: What could cause such high rates
such secondary craters have been found along
of extinction? There are several hypotheses,
Mexicos
including warming or cooling of Earth,
-shocked quartz has been
changes in seasonal fluctuations or ocean
Found both in Mexico and in Haiti. A location
currents, and changing positions of the
called Chicxulub, along the Yucatan coast, has
continents. Biological hypotheses include
been suggested as the primary impact site.
Yucatan
Peninsula,
and
heat
ecological changes brought about by the

evolution of cooperation between insects and
11. The word intense in the passage is closest
flowering
in meaning to
plants
or
of
bottom-feeding
predators in the oceans. Some of the proposed
sudden
mechanisms required a very brief period
unusual
during which all extinctions suddenly took
immediate
place; other mechanisms would be more likely
extreme
to have taken place more gradually, over an

extended period, or at different times on
different continents. Some hypotheses fail to
Glacier Formation
account for simultaneous extinctions on land
Paragraph1: Glaciers are slowly moving
and in the seas. Each mass extinction may
masses of ice that have accumulated on land
have had a different cause. Evidence points to
in areas where more snowfalls during a year
hunting by humans and habitat destruction as
than melts. Snow falls as hexagonal crystals,
the likely causes for the current mass
but once on the ground, snow is soon
extinction.
transformed into a compacted mass of smaller,

rounded grains. As the air space around them
3. The word extended in the passage is closest
is lessened by compaction and melting, the
grains become denser. With further melting,
enough for the ice to flow. Glaciers are
refreezing, and increased weight from newer
sometimes classified by temperature as faster
snowfall above, the snow reaches a granular
-flowing
recrystallized
slower-flowing polar glaciers.
stage
intermediate
between
temperate
glaciers
or
as
flakes and ice known as firn. With additional

time, pressure, and refrozen melt water from
3. The word match in the passage is closest
above, the small firn granules become larger,
in meaning to
interlocked crystals of blue glacial ice. When
measure
the ice is thick enough, usually over 30 meters,
enlarge
the weight of the snow and firn will cause the
approximate
ice crystals toward the bottom to become
equal
plastic and to flow outward or downward from

the area of snow accumulation.
4. The word transform in the passage is

1. The word interlocked in the passage is
break
push
intermediate
change
linked
extend
frozen
fully developed
Paragraph3: Glaciers are part of Earths

hydrologic cycle and are second only to the
Paragraph2: Glaciers are open systems, with
oceans in the total amount of water contained.
snow as the systems input and melt water as
A bout 2 percent of Earths water is currently
the system's main output. The glacial system
frozen as ice. Two percent may be a deceiving
is governed by two basic climatic variables:
figure, however, since over 80 percent of the
precipitation and temperature. For a glacier to
worlds freshwater is locked up as ice in
grow or maintain its mass, there must be
glaciers, with the majority of it in Antarctica.
sufficient snowfall to match or exceed the
The total amount of ice is even more awesome
annual loss through melting, evaporation, and
if we estimate the water released upon the
calving, which occurs when the glacier loses
hypothetical melting of the worlds glaciers .
solid chunks as icebergs to the sea or to Large
Sea level would rise about 60 meters. This
lakes. If summer temperatures are high for too
would change the
long, then all the snowfall from the previous
Geography of the planet considerably. In
winter will melt. Surplus snowfall is essential
contrast, should another ice age occur, sea
for a glacier to develop. A surplus allows
level would drop drastically.
snow to accumulate and for the pressure of
During the last ice age, sea level dropped
snow accumulated over the years to transform
about 120 meters.
buried snow into glacial ice with a depth great
7. The word deceiving in the passage is
TPO-16
Trade and the Ancient Middle East
approximate
Paragraph 2: Reliance on trade had several
exaggerated
important
unusual
generally in the hands of skilled individual
misleading
artisans doing piecework under the tutelage of
consequences.
Production
was
a master who was also the shop owner. In

high
these shops differences of rank were blurred
mountains or in Polar Regions, it may become
as artisans and masters labored side by side in
part of the glacial system. Unlike rain, which
the same modest establishment, were usually
returns rapidly to the sea or atmosphere, the
members of the same guild and religious sect,
snow that becomes part of a glacier is
lived in the same neighborhoods, and often
involved in a much more slowly cycling
had assumed (or real) kinship relationships.
system. Here water may be stored in ice form
The worker was bound to the master by a
for hundreds or even hundreds of thousands of
mutual contract that either one could repudiate,
years before being released again into the
and the relationship was conceptualized as one
liquid water system as melt water. In the
of partnership.
Paragraph4:
When
snowfalls
on
meantime, however, this ice is not static.

Glaciers move slowly across the land with
2. The word repudiate in the passage is
tremendous energy, carving into even the
Hardest
respect
rock
formations
and
thereby
reshaping the landscape as they engulf, push,
reject
drag, and finally deposit rock debris in places
review
far from its original location. As a result,
revise
glaciers create a great variety of landforms

that remain long after the surface is released
Paragraph 3: This mode of craft production
from its icy covering.
favored the growth of self-governing and

ideologically
egalitarian
craft
guilds
10. The word static in the passage is closest
everywhere in the Middle Eastern city. These
in meaning to
were essentially professional associations that
unchanging
provided for the mutual aid and protection of
usable
their
thick
maintenance of professional standards. The
harmless
growth of independent guilds was furthered by
members,
and
allowed
for
the
the fact that surplus was not a result of

domestic
craft
production
but
resulted
primarily from international trading; the

government left working people to govern
themselves, much as shepherds of tribal
Eastern merchants and artisans unhappy with
confederacies were left alone by their leaders.
their environment could simply pack up and
In the multiplicity of small -scale local
leave for greener pastures an act of
egalitarian or quasi-egalitarian organizations
self-assertion wholly impossible in most other
for fellowship, worship, and production that
civilizations throughout history.
flourished in this laissez faire environment,

individuals could interact with one another
9. The word ethic in the passage is closest in
within
meaning to
community
of
harmony
and
ideological equality, following their own
set of moral principles
popularly elected leaders and governing
division of labor
themselves
economic system
by
shared
consensus
while
minimizing distinctions of wealth and power.
test of character
6. The word consensus in the passage is
Paragraph 5: Dependence on long-distance
trade also meant that the great empires of the
authority
Middle East were built both literally and
responsibility
figuratively on shifting sand. The central state,
custom
though often very rich and very populous, was
agreement
intrinsically fragile, since the development of

new
international
trade
routes
could
Paragraph 4: The mercantile economy was
undermine the monetary base and erode state
also characterized by a peculiar moral stance
power, as occurred when European seafarers
that is typical of people who live by tradean
circumvented Middle Eastern merchants after
attitude that is individualistic, calculating, risk
Vasco da
taking, and adaptive to circumstances. As
Gama's voyage around Africa in the late
among tribes people, personal relationships
fifteenth century opened up a southern route.
and a careful weighing of character have
The ecology of the region also permitted
always been crucial in a mercantile economy
armed predators to prowl the surrounding
with little regulation, where one's word is
barrens, which were almost impossible for a
one's bond and where informal ties of trust
state to control. Peripheral peoples therefore
cement together an international trade network.
had a great advantage in their dealings with
Nor have merchants and artisans ever had
the center, making government authority
much tolerance for aristocratic professions of
insecure and anxious.
moral
superiority,
favoring
instead
an
egalitarian ethic of the open market, where
11. The word intrinsically in the passage is
steady hard work, the loyalty of one's fellows,
and
fundamentally
entrepreneurial
skill
make
all
the
difference. And, like the pastoralists, Middle
surprisingly
consequently
particularly
1. The phrase interplay in the passage is

sequence
Development of the Periodic Table
interpretation
Paragraph 1: The periodic table is a chart that
requirement
reflects the periodic recurrence of chemical
interaction
and physical properties of the elements when

the elements are arranged in order of
Paragraph 2: When the German chemist
increasing atomic number (the number of
Lothar Meyer and (independently) the Russian
protons in the nucleus). It is a monumental
Dmitry Mendeleyev first introduced the
scientific achievement, and its development
periodic table in 1869-70, one-third of the
illustrates the essential interplay between
naturally occurring chemical elements had not
observation, prediction, and testing required
yet been discovered. Yet both chemists were
for scientific progress. In the 1800's scientists
sufficient ly farsighted to leave gaps where
were searching for new elements. By the late
their analyses of periodic physical and
1860's more than 60 chemical elements had
chemical
been identified, and much was known about
elements should be located. Mendeleyev was
their descriptive chemistry. Various proposals
bolder than Meyer and even Assumed that if a
were put forth to arrange the elements into
measured atomic mass put an element in the
groups based on similarities in chemical and
wrong place in the table, the atomic mass was
physical properties. The next step was to
wrong. In some cases this was true. Indium,
recognize
group
for example, had previously been assigned an
properties (physical or chemical similarities)
atomic mass between those of arsenic and
and atomic mass (the measured mass of an
selenium. Because there is no space in the
individual atom of an element). When the
periodic table between these two elements,
elements known at the time were ordered by
Mendeleyev suggested that the atomic mass of
increasing atomic mass, it was found that
indium be changed to a completely different
successive elements belonged to different
value, where it would fill an empty space
chemical groups and that the order of the
between cadmium and tin. In fact, subsequent
groups in this sequence was fixed and
work has shown that in a periodic table,
repeated itself at regular intervals. Thus when
elements should not be ordered strictly by
the series of elements was written so as to
atomic mass. For example, tellurium comes
begin a new horizontal row with each alkali
before iodine in the periodic table, even
metal, elements of. The same groups were
though its atomic mass is slightly greater.
automatically assembled in vertical columns
Such anomalies are due to the relative
in a periodic table of the elements. This table
abundance of the isotopes or varieties of
was the forerunner of the modern table.
each element. All the isotopes of a given
connection
between
properties
indicated
that
new
element have the same number of protons, but
krypton, and xenon) were isolated.
differ in their number of neutrons, and hence

in their atomic mass. The isotopes of a given
1 2. The word postulated in the passage is
element have the same chemical properties but
slightly different physical properties. We now
hypothesized
know that atomic number (the number of
discovered
protons in the nucleus), not atomic mass
reported
number (the number of protons and neutrons),
generated
determines chemical behavior.

7. The phrase abundance in the passage is
Planets in Our Solar System
Paragraph 4: Other dimensions along which
weight
the two groups differ markedly are density and
requirement
composition. The densities of the terrestrial
plenty
planets average about 5 times the density of
sequence
water, whereas the Jovian planets have

densities that average only 1.5 times the
Paragraph 4: The structure of the periodic
density of water. One of the outer planets,
table appeared to limit the number of possible
Saturn, has a density of only 0.7 that of water,
elements. It was therefore quite surprising
which means that Saturn would float in water.
when John William Strut (Lord Rayleigh,
Variations in the composition of the planets
discovered a gaseous element in 1894 that did
are
not fit into the previous classification scheme.
differences. The substances that make up both
A century earlier, Henry Cavendish had noted
groups of planets are divided into three groups
the existence of a residual gas when oxygen
gases, rocks, and icesbased on their
and nitrogen are removed from air, but its
melting points. The terrestrial planets are
importance had not been realized. Together
mostly rocks: dense rocky and metallic
with William Ramsay, Rayleigh isolated the
material, with minor amounts of gases. The
gas (separating it from other substances into
Jovian planets, on the other hand, contain a
its pure state) and named it argon. Ramsay
large percentage of the gases hydrogen
then studied a gas that was present in natural
And helium, with varying amounts of ices:
gas deposits and discovered that it was helium,
mostly water, ammonia, and methane ices.
largely
responsible
for
the
density
an element whose presence in the Sun had

been noted earlier in the spectrum of sunlight
2. The word markedly in the passage is closest
but that had not previously been known on
in meaning to
Earth. Rayleigh and Ramsay postulated the
Essentially
existence of a new group of elements, and in
Typically
1898 other members of the series (neon,
Consistently
thin
noticeably
unique
Paragraph 5: The Jovian planets have very
complex
thick atmospheres consisting of varying

amounts of hydrogen, helium, methane, and
Paragraph 6: The orderly nature of our solar
ammonia. By comparison, the terrestrial
system leads most astronomers to conclude
planets have meager atmospheres at best. A
that the planets formed at essentially the same
planet's ability to retain an atmosphere
time and from the same material as the Sun. It
depends on its temperature and mass. Simply
is hypothesized that the primordial cloud of
stated, a gas molecule can evaporate from a
dust and gas from which all the planets are
planet if it reaches a speed known as the
thought to have condensed had a composition
escape velocity. For Earth, this velocity is 11
somewhat similar to that of Jupiter. However,
kilometers
material,
unlike Jupiter, the terrestrial planets today are
including a rocket, must reach this speed
nearly void of light gases and ices. The
before it can leave Earth and go into space.
explanation
The Jovian planets, because of their greater
may be that the terrestrial planets were once
masses and thus higher surface gravities, have
much larger and richer in these materials but
higher escape velocities (21 -60 kilometers per
eventually lost them because of these bodies'
second)
relative closeness to the Sun, which meant that
per
than
second.
the
Any
terrestrial
planets.
Consequently, it is more difficult for gases to
their temperatures were relatively high.
evaporate from them. Also, because The

molecular motion of a gas depends on
10. The word eventually in the passage is
temperature, at the low temperatures of the
Jovian planets even the lightest gases are
over time
unlikely to acquire the speed needed to escape.
long ago
On the other hand, a comparatively warm
simply
body with a small surface gravity, like Earth's
certainly
moon, is unable to hold even the heaviest gas

and thus lacks an atmosphere. The slightly
larger terrestrial planets Earth, Venus, and
TPO-17
Mars retain some heavy gases like carbon
Europe's Early Sea Trade with Asia
dioxide, but even their atmospheres make up
Paragraph 1: In the fourteenth century, a
only an infinitesimally small portion of their
number of political developments cut Europe's
total mass.
overland trade routes to southern and eastern

Asia, with which Europe had had important
5. The word meager in the passage is closest
and highly profitable commercial ties since
in meaning to
the twelfth century. This development, coming
rich
as it did when the bottom had fallen out of the
European economy, provided an impetus to a
But even high-priced commodities like spices
long-held desire to secure direct relations with
had to be transported in large bulk in order to
the East by establishing a sea trade. Widely
justify the expense and trouble of sailing
Reported, if somewhat distrusted, accounts by
around the African continent all the way to
figures like the famous traveler from Venice.
India and China.
Marco Polo, of the willingness of people in

China to trade with Europeans and of the
5. The word dramatically in the passage is
immensity of the wealth to be gained by such
contact made the idea irresistible Possibilities
Artificially
for trade seemed promising, but no hope
Greatly
existed for maintaining the traditional routes
Immediately
over land A new way had to be found.
Regularly
1. The word impetus in the passage is closest
Paragraph 4: The astrolabe had long been the
in meaning to
primary instrument for navigation, having
Return
been introduced in the eleventh century. It
Opportunity
operated by measuring the height of the Sun
Stimulus
and the fixed stars: by calculating the angles
Obstacle
created by these points, it determined the

degree of latitude at which one stood (The
was
problem of determining longitude, though,
technological: How were the Europeans to
was not solved until the eighteenth century.)
reach the East? Europe's maritime tradition
By the early thirteenth century. Western
had developed in the context of easily
Europeans had also developed and put into use
navigable seas the Mediterranean, the Baltic,
the magnetic compass, which helped when
and. to a lesser extent, the North Sea between
clouds obliterated both the Sun and the stars.
England and the Continentnot of vast
Also beginning in the thirteenth century, there
oceans. New types of ships were needed, new
were new maps refined by precise calculations
methods of finding one's way, new techniques
and the reports of sailors that made it possible
for financing so vast a scheme. The sheer
to trace one's path with reasonable accuracy.
scale of the investment it took to begin
Certain institutional and practical norms had
commercial expansion at sea reflects the
become established as well. A maritime code
immensity of the profits that such East -West
known as the Consulate of the Sea. Which
trade could create Spices were the most
originated in the western Mediterranean
sought-after commodities. Spices not only
region
dramatically improved the taste of the
acceptance by a majority of sea goers as the
European
to
normative code for maritime conduct; it
manufacture perfumes and certain medicines.
defined such matters as the authority of a
Paragraph
2:
diet
The
but
chief
also
problem
were
used
in
the
fourteenth
century,
won
ship's officers, protocols of command, pay
Colorful
structures, the rights of sailors, and the rules

of engagement when ships met one another on
Paragraph 2: In the varied and constantly
the sea-lanes. Thus by about 1400 the key
changing light environment of the forest, an
elements were
animal must be able to send visual signals to
in place to enable Europe to begin its seaward
members of its own species and at the same
adventure.
time avoid being detected by predators. An

animal can hide from predators by choosing
10. The word refined in the passage is closest
the light environment in which its pattern is
in meaning to
least visible. This may require moving to
Completed
different parts of the forest at different times
Improved
of the day or under different weather
Drawn
conditions, or it may be achieved by changing
Checked
color
according
to
the
changing
light
conditions. Many species of amphibians (frogs

11. The word norms in the passage is closest
and toads) and reptiles (lizards and snakes) are
in meaning to
able to change their color patterns to
purposes
camouflage themselves. Some also signal by
skills
changing color. The chameleon lizard has the
activities
most striking ability to do this. Some
rules
chameleon species can change from a rather

dull appearance to a full riot of carnival colors
in seconds. By this means, they signal their
Animal Signals in the Rain Forest
level of aggression or readiness to mate.
Paragraph 1: The daytime quality of light in

forests varies with the density of the
3. The word signal in the passage is closest in
vegetation, the angle of the Sun, and the
meaning to
amount of cloud in the sky. Both animals and
change
plants have different appearances in these
imitate
various lighting conditions. A color or pattern
communicate
that is relatively indistinct in one kind of light
hide
may be quite conspicuous in another.

Paragraph 4: Very little light filters through
1. The phrase conspicuous in the passage is
the canopy of leaves and branches in a rain
forest to reach ground levelor close to the
Common
groundand
Noticeable
yellow-to-green wavelengths predominate. A
Different
signal might be most easily seen if it is
at
those
levels
the
maximally bright. In the green-to yellow
particularly over long distances. The piercing
lighting conditions of the lowest levels of the
cries of the rhinoceros hornbill characterize
forest, yellow and green would be the
the Southeast Asian rain forest, as do the
brightest colors, but when an animal is
unmistakable calls of the gibbons. In densely
signaling, these colors would not be very
wooded environments, sound is the best
visible if the animal was sitting in an area with
means
a yellowish or greenish background. The best
because in comparison with light, it travels
signal depends not only on its brightness but
with little impediment from trees and other
also on how well it contrasts with the
vegetation. In forests, visual signals can be
background against which it must be seen. In
seen only at short distances, where they are
this part of the rain forest, therefore, red and
not obstructed by trees. The male riflebird
orange are the best colors for signaling, and
exploits both of these modes of signaling
they are the colors used in signals by the
simultaneously in his courtship display. The
ground-walking Australian brush turkey. This
sounds made as each wing is opened carry
species, which lives in the rain forests and
extremely well over distance and advertise his
scrublands of the east coast of Australia, has a
presence widely. The ritualized visual display
brown to-black plumage with bare, bright-red
communicates in close quarters when a female
skin on the head and neck and a neck collar of
has approached.
of
communication
over
distance
orange-yellow loosely hanging skin. During

courtship and aggressive displays, the turkey
11. The word impediment in the passage is
enlarges its colored neck collar by inflating
sacs in the neck region and then flings about a
obstruction
pendulous part of the colored signaling
effort
apparatus as it utters calls designed to attract
delay
or repel. This impressive display is clearly
resistance
visible in the light spectrum illuminating the

forest floor.
12. The word exploits in the passage is closest

in meaning to
8. The word inflating in the passage is closest
repeats
in meaning to
makes use of
Coloring
increases the intensity of
Enlarging
recognizes
Loosening
Heating
Symbiotic Relationships
Paragraph 5: Less colorful birds and animals
Paragraph
2:
Parasitism
is
kind
relationship
in
which
of
that inhabit the rain forest tend to rely on
predator-prey
forms of signaling other than the visual,
organism, the parasite, derives its food at the
one
expense of its symbiotic associate, the host.
rabbit population were selected that were
Parasites are usually smaller than their hosts.
better able to resist the parasite. Meanwhile,
An example of a parasite is a tapeworm that
the deadliest strains of
lives inside the intestines of a larger animal
The virus perished with their hosts as natural
and absorbs nutrients from its host. Natural
selection favored strains that could infect
selection favors the parasites that are best able
hosts but not kill them. Thus, natural selection
to find and feed on hosts. At the same time,
stabilized this host-parasite relationship.
defensive abilities of hosts are also selected

for. As an example, plants make chemicals
4. The word devastated in the passage is
toxic to fungal and bacterial parasites, along
with
Influenced
ones
toxic
to
predatory
animals
(sometimes they are the same chemicals). In
Infected
vertebrates, the immune system provides a
strengthened
multiple defense against internal parasites.
destroyed
2. The word derives in the passage is closest
Paragraph 4: In contrast to parasitism, in
in meaning to
commensalism, one partner benefits without
Digests
significantly affecting the other. Few cases of
Obtains
absolute
Controls
because it is unlikely that one of the partners
Discovers
will be completely unaffected. Commensal
commensalism
probably
exist,
associations sometimes involve one species'

Paragraph 3: At times, it is actually possible to
obtaining food that is inadvertently exposed
watch the effects of natural selection in host
by another. For instance, several kinds of birds
-parasite relationships. For example, Australia
feed on insects flushed out of the grass by
during the 1940 s was overrun by hundreds of
grazing cattle. It is
millions of European rabbits. The rabbits
Difficult to imagine how this could affect the
destroyed huge expanses of Australia and
cattle, but the relationship may help or hinder
threatened the sheep and cattle industries. In
them in some way not yet recognized.
1950, myxoma virus, a parasite that affects

rabbits, was deliberately introduced into
7. The word inadvertently in the passage is
Australia to control the rabbit population.
Spread rapidly by mosquitoes, the virus
Indefensibly
devastated the rabbit population. The virus
Substantially
was less deadly to the offspring of surviving
Unintentionally
rabbits, however, and it caused less and less
Partially
harm over the years. Apparently, genotypes

(the genetic make -up of an organism) in the
Paragraph 6: The complex interplay of species
in
symbiotic
relationships
highlights
an
commercial nations, Denmark abolished the
important point about communities: Their
Sound toll dues the fees it had collected since
structure depends on a web of diverse
1497 for the use of the Sound. This, along
connections among organisms.
with other policy shifts toward free trade,

resulted in a significant increase in traffic
11. The word highlights in the passage is
through the Sound and in the port of
Copenhagen.
Defines
Emphasizes
5. The word exceptional in the passage is
Reflects
Suggests
extraordinary
surprising
immediate
TPO-18
predictable
Industrialization in the Netherlands and

Scandinavia
6. The word abolished in the passage is
Paragraph 4: Location was an important factor
for all four countries. All had immediate
ended
access to the sea, and this had important
raised
implications for a significant international
returned
resource, fish, as well as for cheap transport,
lowered
merchant
marines,
and
the
shipbuilding
industry. Each took advantage of these
Paragraph 5: The political institutions of the
opportunities in its own way. The people of
four countries posed no significant barriers to
the Netherlands, with a long tradition of
industrialization or economic growth. The
fisheries
had
nineteenth
difficulty in developing good harbors Suitable
peacefully
for steamships: eventually they did so at
progressive democratization taking place in all
Rotterdam and Amsterdam, with exceptional
of them. They were reasonably well governed,
results for transit trade with Germany and
without notable corruption or grandiose state
central Europe and for the processing of
projects,
overseas foodstuffs and raw materials (sugar,
government gave some aid to railways, and in
tobacco, chocolate, grain, and eventually oil).
Sweden the state built the main lines. As small
Denmark also had an admirable commercial
countries dependent on foreign markets, they
history, particularly with respect to traffic
followed a liberal trade policy in the main,
through the Sound (the strait separating
though a protectionist movement developed in
Denmark and Sweden). In 1857, in return for
Sweden. In Denmark and Sweden agricultural
a payment of 63 million kronor from other
reforms took place gradually from the late
and
mercantile
shipping,
century
for
although
passed
these
in
relatively
countries,
all
of
them
with
the
eighteenth century through the first half of the
yawning, which remained constant at about 24
nineteenth, resulting in a new class of peasant
yawns
landowners with a definite market orientation.
demonstrated that physical exercise, which
per
hour.
Another
experiment
was sufficiently vigorous to double the rate of

8. The word progressive in the passage is
Breathing, had no effect on the frequency of
yawning. Again the implication is that
rapid
yawning has little or nothing to do with
partial
oxygen.
increasing
individual
3. The word flaw in the passage is closest in

meaning to
fault
The mystery of yawning
aspect
Paragraph2: Another flaw of the tiredness
confusion
theory is that yawning does not raise alertness
mystery
or physiological activity, as the theory would

predict. When researchers measured the heart
5. The word triggered in the passage is
rate, muscle tension and skin conductance of
people before, during and after yawning, they
removed
did detect some changes in skin conductance
followed
following
increased
yawning,
indicating
slight
increase in physiological activity. However,
caused
similar changes occurred when the subjects

were asked simply to open their mouths or to
Paragraph3: A completely different theory
breathe deeply. Yawning did nothing special
holds that yawning assists in the physical
to their state of physiological activity.
development of the lungs early in life, but has
Experiments have also cast serious doubt on
no remaining biological function in adults. It
the belief that yawning is triggered by a drop
has
in blood oxygen or a rise in blood carbon
hiccupping might serve to clear out the fetuses
dioxide. Volunteers were told to think about
airways. The lungs of a fetus secrete a liquid
yawning while they breathed either normal air,
that mixes with its mother's amniotic fluid.
pure oxygen, or an air mixture with an
Babies with congenital blockages that prevent
above-normal level of carbon dioxide. If the
this fluid from escaping from their lungs are
theory was correct, breathing air with extra
sometimes born with deformed lungs. It might
carbon dioxide should have triggered yawning,
be that yawning helps to clear out the lungs by
while breathing pure oxygen should have
periodically lowering the pressure in them.
suppressed yawning. In fact, neither condition
According to this theory, yawning in adults is
made any difference to the frequency of
just a developmental fossil with no biological
been
suggested
that
yawning
and
function. But, while accepting that not
soldiers yawning before combat, musicians
everything in life can be explained by
yawning before performing, and athletes
Darwinian evolution, there are sound reasons
yawning before competing. Their yawning
for being skeptical of theories like this one,
seems to have nothing to do with sleepiness or
which avoid the issue of what yawning does
boredomquite the reversebut it does
for adults. Yawning is distracting, consumes
precede a change in activity level.
energy and takes time. It is almost certainly

doing something significant in adults as well
10. The word empirical in the passage is
as in fetuses. What could it be?
reliable
7. The word periodically in the passage is
based on common sense
closest in the meaning to
relevant
continuously
based on observation
quickly
regularly
Lightning
carefully
Paragraph1: Lightning is a brilliant flash of

Paragraph 4: The empirical evidence, such as
light produced by an electrical discharge from
it is, suggests an altogether different function
a storm cloud. The electrical discharge takes
for yawningnamely, that yawning prepares
place when the attractive tension between a
us for a change in activity level. Support for
region of negatively charged particles and a
this theory came from a study of yawning
region of positively charged particles becomes
behavior in everyday life. Volunteers wore
so great that the charged particles suddenly
wrist-mounted
automatically
rush together. The coming together of the
recorded their physical activity for up to two
oppositely charged particles neutralizes the
weeks: the volunteers also recorded their
electrical tension and releases a tremendous
yawns by pressing a button on the device each
amount of Energy, which we see as lightning.
time they yawned. The data showed that
The separation of positively and negatively
yawning tended to occur about 15 minutes
charged particles takes place during the
before a period of increased behavioral
development of the storm cloud.
devices
that
activity. Yawning bore no relationship to sleep

patterns,
however.
This
accords
with
2. The word tremendous in the passage is
anecdotal evidence that people often yawn in
situations where they are neither tired nor
distinct
bored, but are preparing for impending mental
growing
and physical activity. Such yawning is often
huge
referred to as incongruous because it seems
immediate
out of place, at least on the tiredness view:
Paragraph 2: The separation of charged
in meaning to
particles that forms in a storm cloud has a
reject
sandwich-like structure. Concentrations of
obtain
positively charged particles develop at the top
need
and bottom of the cloud, but the middle region
produce
becomes
negatively
charged.
Recent
measurements made in the field together with
Paragraph 4: Using high-speed photography,
laboratory simulations offer a promising
scientists have determined that there are two
explanation of how this structure of charged
steps to the occurrence of lightning from a
particles forms. What happens is that small
cloud to the ground. First, a channel, or path,
(millimeter to centimeter-size) pellets of ice
is formed that connects the cloud and the
form in the cold upper regions of the cloud.
ground. Then a strong current of electrons
When these ice pellets fall, some of them
follows that path from the cloud to the ground,
strike much smaller ice crystals in the center
and it is that current that illuminates the
of the cloud. The temperature at the center of
channel as the lightning we see.
the cloud is about -15 or lower. At such

temperatures, the collision between the ice
8. The word illuminates in the passage is
pellets and the ice crystals causes electrical
closet in meaning to
charges to shift so that the ice pellets acquire a
opens
negative charge and the ice crystals become
completes
positively
lights
charged.
Then
updraft
wind
currents carry the light, positively charged ice
electrifies
crystals up to the top of the cloud. The heavier

negatively charged ice pellets are left to
Paragraph 5: The formation of the channel is
concentrate in the center. This process
initiated when electrons surge from the cloud
explains why the top of the cloud becomes
base toward the ground. When a stream of
positively charged, while the center becomes
these negatively charged electrons comes
negatively charged. The negatively charged
within 100 meters of the ground it is met by a
region is large: several hundred meters thick
stream of positively charged particles that
and Several kilometers in diameter. Below this
comes up from the ground. When the
large, cold, negatively charged region, the
negatively and positively charged streams
cloud is warmer than -15 , and at these
meet, a complete channel connecting the cloud
temperatures, collisions between ice crystals
and the ground is formed. The channel is only
and falling ice pellets produce positively
a few centimeters in diameter, but that is wide
charged ice pellets that then populate a small
enough for electrons to follow the channel to
region at the base of the cloud.
the ground in the visible form of a flash of

lightning. The stream of positive particles that
4. The word acquire in the passage is closest
meets the surge of electrons from the cloud
often arises from a tall pointed structure such
remain to suppress rebellion and organize
as a metal flagpole or a tower. That is why the
government.
subsequent
completed
lightning
channel
that
often
follows
strikes
the
tall
structure.
4. The word suppress in the passage is

respond to
12. The word initiated is closet in meaning
warn against
to
avoid the impact of
started
stop by force
intensified
finished
Paragraph 2: Economic exchange was clearly
expected
very important as the Roman army brought

with it very substantial spending power.
Locally a fort had two kinds of impact. Its
TPO-19
large population needed food and other
The Roman Army's Impact on Britain
supplies. Some of these were certainly brought
Paragraph 1: In the wake of the Roman
from long distances, but demands were
Empire's conquest of Britain in the first
inevitably placed on the local area. Although
century A.D., a large number of troops stayed
goods could be requisitioned, they were
in the new province, and these troops had a
usually paid for, and this probably stimulated
considerable impact on Britain with their
changes in the local economy.
camps, fortifications, and participation in the
When not campaigning, soldiers needed to be
local economy. Assessing the impact of the
occupied;
army on the civilian population starts from the
potentially dangerous source of friction and
realization that the soldiers were always
disloyalty. Hence a writing tablet dated 25
unevenly distributed across the country. Areas
April tells of 343 men at one fort engaged on
rapidly incorporated into the empire were not
tasks like shoemaking, building a bathhouse,
long affected by the military. Where the army
operating kilns, digging clay, and working
remained stationed, its presence was much
lead. Such activities had a major effect on the
more influential. The imposition of a military
local area, in particular with the construction
base involved the requisition of native lands
of
for both the fort and the territory needed to
improved access to remote areas.
otherwise
infrastructure
they
such
as
represented
roads,
which
feed and exercise the soldiers' animals. The

imposition of military rule also robbed local
5. The word friction in the passage is closest
leaders of opportunities to participate in local
in meaning to
government, so social development was
rebellion
stunted and the seeds of disaffection sown.
conflict
This then meant that the military had to
neglect
crime
Paragraph 3: Each soldier received his pay,
12. The word circumstances in the passage is
but in regions without a developed economy
there was initially little on which it could be
experiences
spent. The pool of excess cash rapidly
communities
stimulated a thriving economy outside fort
conditions
gates. Some of the demand for the services
laws
and goods was no doubt fulfilled by people

drawn from far afield, but some local people
certainly became entwined in this new
Succession, Climax, and Ecosystems
economy. There was informal marriage with
Paragraph 2: Clements and other early
soldiers, who until AD 197 were not legally
ecologists saw almost law like regularity in
entitled to wed, and whole new communities
the order of succession, but that has not been
grew up near the forts. These settlements
substantiated.
acted like small towns, becoming centers for
recognized,
the artisan and trading populations.
unpredictable. Succession is influenced by
A
but
general
the
trend
details
are
can
be
usually
many factors: the nature of the soil, exposure

7. The phrase entitled to in the passage is
to sun and wind, regularity of precipitation,
chance colorizations, and many other random
given the right to
processes.
able to afford to
encouraged to
2. The word substantiated in the passage is
required to
confirmed
Paragraph 5: This process of settling in as a
noticed
community
defined
over
several
generations,
combined with local recruitment, presumably
publicized
accounts for the apparent stability of the

British northern frontier in the later Roman
3. The word trend in the passage is closest in
period. It also explains why some of the forts
meaning to
continued in occupation long after Rome
probability
ceased to have any formal authority in Britain,
picture
at the beginning of the fifth century A.D. The
law like regularity
circumstances that had allowed natives to
tendency
become
Romanized
also
led
the
self-sustaining military community of the
Paragraph 3: The final stage of a succession,
frontier area to become effectively British.
called the climax by Clements and early
ecologists, is likewise not predictable or of
broadly
uniform composition. There is usually a good
properly
deal of turnover in species composition, even
officially
in a mature community. The nature of the

climax is influenced by the same factors that
Paragraph 5: Even less fortunate was the
influenced succession. Nevertheless, mature
extension of this type of thinking to include
natural
in
animals as well as plants. This resulted in the
equilibrium. They change relatively little
biome, a combination of coexisting flora and
through time unless the
fauna. Though it is true that many animals are
Environment itself changes.
strictly associated with certain plants, it is
environments
are
usually
misleading to speak of a spruce-moose

4. The word likewise in the passage is
biome, for example, because there is no
internal cohesion to their association as in an
sometimes
organism. The spruce community is not
similarly
substantially affected by either the presence or
apparently
absence of moose. Indeed, there are vast areas
consequently
of
spruce
forest
without
moose.
The
opposition to the clement Sian concept of

Paragraph 4: For Clements, the climax was a
plant ecology was initiated by Herbert
super organism, an organic entity. Even
Gleason, soon joined by various other
some authors who accepted the climax
ecologists. Their major point was that the
concept rejected Clements' characterization of
distribution of a given species was controlled
it as a super organism, and it is indeed a
by the habitat requirements of that species and
misleading metaphor. An ant colony may be
that therefore the vegetation types were a
legitimately called a super organism because
simple consequence of the ecologies of
its communication system is so highly
individual plant species.
organized that the colony always works as a

whole and appropriately according to the
9. The word initiated in the passage is
circumstances. But there is no evidence for
such an interacting communicative network in
approved
a climax plant formation. Many authors prefer
identified
the term association to the term community
started
in order to stress the looseness of the
foreseen
interaction.
5. The word legitimately in the passage is
Discovering the Ice Ages
Paragraph 1: In the middle of the nineteenth
commonly
century, Louis Agassiz, one of the first
scientists to study glaciers, Immigrated to the
geologists and the general public that a great
United States from Switzerland and became a
continental glaciation had extended the polar
professor at Harvard University, where he
ice caps far into regions that now enjoy
continued his studies in geology and other
temperate climates. For the first time, people
sciences. For his research, Agassiz visited
began to talk about ice ages. It was also
many places in the northern parts of Europe
apparent that the glaciation occurred in the
and North America, from the mountains of
relatively recent past because the drift was soft,
Scandinavia and New England to the rolling
like freshly deposited sediment. We now
hills of the American
MI dwest. In all these
know the age of the glaciation accurately from
diverse regions, Agassiz saw signs of glacial
radiometric dating of the carbon-14 in logs
erosion and sedimentation. In flat plains
buried in the drift. The drift of the last
country, he saw moraines (accumulations of
glaciation was deposited during one of the
earth and loose rock that form at the edges of
most recent epochs of geologic time, the
glaciers) that reminded him of the terminal
Pleistocene, which lasted from 1.8 million to
moraines found at the end of valley glaciers in
10,000 years ago. Along the east coast of the
the Alps. The heterogeneous material of the
United States, the southernmost advance of
drift (sand, clay, and rocks deposited there)
this ice is recorded
convinced him of its glacial origin.
by the enormous sand and drift deposits of the

terminal moraines that form Long Island and
1. The word accumulations in the passage is
Cape Cod.
c losest in meaning to
signs
4. The word enjoy in the passage is closest
pieces
in meaning to
types
experience
deposits
resemble
expect
2. The word heterogeneous in the passage is
dominate
remaining
Paragraph 4: This idea was modified in the
varied
late twentieth century, when geologists and
familiar
oceanographers examining oceanic sediment
layered
found fossil evidence of warming and cooling

of the oceans. Ocean sediments presented a
Paragraph 2: The areas covered by this
much more complete geologic record of the
material were so vast that the ice that
Pleistocene than continental glacial deposits
deposited it must have been a continental
did. The fossils buried in Pleistocene and
glacier larger than Greenland or Antarctica.
Earlier
Eventually, Agassiz and others convinced
foraminiferasmall,
ocean
sediments
were
single-celled
of
marine
organisms that secrete shells of calcium
relatively stratified; occupation and social
carbonate, or calcite. These shells differ in
status were inherited. In American society,
their
oxygen
however, the class structure was less rigid;
(oxygen-16) and the heavy oxygen isotope
some people changed occupations easily and
(oxygen-18). The ratio of oxygen-16 to
believed it was their duty to improve their
oxygen-18
social and economic position. As a result,
foraminifer's shell depends on the temperature
many Americans were an inveterately restless,
of the water in which the organism lived.
rootless, and ambitious people. Therefore,
Different ratios in the shells preserved in
these social traits helped to produce the
various
the
nomadic and daring settlers who kept pushing
temperature changes in the oceans during the
westward beyond the fringes of settlement. In
Pleistocene epoch.
addition, there were other immigrants who
proportion
found
layers
of
in
of.
ordinary
the
calcite
Sediment
of
reveal
migrated west in search of new homes,

8. The word reveal in the passage is closest
material success, and better lives.
in meaning to
result from
3. The word fringes in the passage is closest
vary with
in meaning to
show
borders
preserve
groups
types
directions
TPO-20
Westward Migration
Paragraph 3: The West had plenty of
Paragraph 2: Why were these hundreds of
attractions: the alluvial river bottoms, the
thousands of settlersmost of them farmers,
fecund soils of the rolling forest lands, the
some of them artisansdrawn away from the
black loams of the prairies were tempting to
cleared fields and established cities and
New England farmers working their rocky,
villages of the East? Certain characteristics of
sterile land and to southeastern farmers
American
this
plagued with soil depletion and erosion. In
remarkable migration. The European ancestors
1820 under a new land law, a farm could be
of some Americans had for centuries lived
bought for $100. The continued proliferation
rooted to the same village or piece of land
of banks made it easier for those without cash
until some religious, political, or economic
to negotiate loans in paper money.
crisis uprooted them and drove them across
Western Farmers borrowed with the confident
the Atlantic. Many of those who experienced
expectation that the expanding economy
this sharp break thereafter lacked the ties that
would keep farm prices high, thus making it
had bound them and their ancestors to a single
easy to repay loans when they fell due.
place.
society
Moreover,
help
to
European
explain
society
was
7. The word proliferation in the passage is
collected
growth
shifted
cooperation
transported
importance
sold
success
Paragraph
5:
Two
other
developments
Early Settlements in the Southwest Asia
presaged the end of the era of turnpikes and
Paragraph 1: The universal global warming at
started a transportation revolution that resulted
the end of the Ice Age had dramatic effects on
in increased regional specialization and the
temperate regions of Asia, Europe, and North
growth of a national market economy. First
America. Ice sheets retreated and sea levels
came the steamboat; although flatboats and
rose. The climatic changes in southwestern
keelboats continued to be important until the 1
Asia were more subtle, in that they involved
850s steamboats eventually superseded all
shifts in mountain snow lines, rainfall patterns,
other craft in the carrying of passengers and
and vegetation cover. However, these same
freight. Steamboats were not only faster but
cycles of change had momentous impacts on
also transported upriver freight for about one
the sparse human populations of the region. At
tenth of what it had previously cost on
the end of the Ice Age, no more than a few
hand-propelled keelboats. Next came the Erie
thousand foragers lived along the eastern
Canal, an enormous project in its day,
Mediterranean coast, in the Jordan and
spanning about 350 miles. After the canal
Euphrates valleys. Within 2,000 years, the
went into operation, the cost per mile of
human population of the region numbered in
transporting a ton of freight from Buffalo to
the tens of thousands, all as a result of village
New York City declined from nearly 20 cents
life
to less than 1 cent. Eventually, the western
environmental and archaeological discoveries,
states diverted much of their produce from the
we
rivers to the Erie Canal, a shorter route to
remarkable change in local life.
and
now
farming.
know
Thanks
something
to
about
new
this
eastern markets.
1. The word momentous in the passage is
9. The word superseded in the passage is
numerous
replaced
regular
reformed
very important
equaled
very positive
increased
Paragraph 2: Pollen samples from freshwater
10. The word diverted in the passage is
lakes in Syria and elsewhere tell us forest
cover expanded rapidly at the end of the Ice
Abu Hureyra was founded about 9500B.C, a
Age, for the southwestern Asian climate was
small village settlement of cramped pit
still cooler and considerably wetter than today.
dwellings (houses dug partially in the soil)
Many areas were richer in animal and plant
with reed roofs supported by wooden uprights.
species than they are now, making them
For the next 1,500 years, its inhabitants
highly favorable for human occupation. About
enjoyed a somewhat warmer and damper
9000 B.C., most human settlements lay in the
climate than today, living in a well -wooded
area along the Mediterranean coast and in the
steppe area where wild cereal grasses were
Zagros Mountains of Iran and their foothills.
abundant.
Some local areas, like the Jordan River valley,
migrations of Persian gazelles from the south.
the middle Euphrates valley, and some Zagros
With such a favorable location, about 300 to
valleys, were more densely populated than
400 people lived in a sizable, permanent
elsewhere. Here more sedentary and more
settlement. They were no longer a series of
complex societies flourished. These people
small bands but lived in a large community
exploited the landscape intensively, foraging
with more elaborate social organization,
on hill slopes for wild cereal grasses and nuts,
probably grouped into clans of people of
while hunting gazelle and other game on
common descent.
They
subsisted
off
spring
grassy lowlands and in river valleys. Their

settlements contain exotic objects such as
6. The word cramped in the passage is
seashells, stone bowls, and artifacts made of
obsidian (volcanic glass), all traded from afar.
primitive
This considerable volume of intercommunity
secure
exchange
extended
brought
degree
of
social
complexity in its wake.
confined
4. The word exploited in the passage is
Paragraph 4: The flotation samples from the
excavations allowed botanists to study shifts
explored
in plant-collecting habits as if they were
utilized
looking through a telescope at a changing
inhabited
landscape. Hundreds of tiny plant remains
improved
show how the inhabitants exploited nut

harvests in nearby pistachio and oak forests.
Paragraph 3: Thanks to extremely fine-grained
However, as the climate dried up, the forests
excavation and extensive use of flotation
retreated from the vicinity of the settlement.
methods (through which seeds are recovered
The inhabitants turned to wild cereal grasses
from soil samples), we know a great deal
instead, collecting them by the thousands,
about the foraging practices of the inhabitants
while the percentage of nuts in the diet fell.
of Abu Hureyra in Syria's Euphrates valley.
By 8200B.C., drought conditions were so
severe that the people abandoned their

long-established
settlement,
surprisingly
perhaps
dispersing into smaller camps.

Fossil Preservation
8. The word shifts in the passage is closest in
Paragraph 1: When one considers the many
meaning to
ways by which organisms are completely
effects
destroyed after death, it is remarkable that
similarities
fossils are as common as they are. Attack by
changes
scavengers and bacteria, chemical decay, and
exceptions
destruction by erosion and other geologic

agencies make the odds against preservation
Paragraph 5: Five centuries later, about
very high. However, the chances of escaping
7700B.C. a new village rose on the mound. At
Complete destruction are vastly improved if
first the inhabitants still hunted gazelle
the organism happens to have a mineralized
intensively. Then, about 7000 B.C., within the
skeleton and dies in a place where it can be
space of a few generations, they switched
quickly buried by sediment. Both of these
abruptly to herding domesticated goats and
conditions are often found on the ocean floors,
sheep and to growing einkorn, pulses, and
where
other cereal grasses. Abu Hureyra grew
without spines) flourish and are covered by
rapidly until it covered nearly 30 acres. It was
the continuous rain of sedimentary particles.
a close -knit community of rectangular,
Although most fossils are found in marine
one-story mud-brick houses,
sedimentary rocks, they also are found in
Joined by narrow lanes and courtyards, finally
terrestrial deposits left by streams and lakes.
abandoned about 5000 B.C... Many complex
On occasion, animals and plants have been
factors led to the adoption of the new
preserved after becoming immersed in tar or
economies, not only at Abu Hureyra, but at
quicksand, trapped in ice or lava flows, or
many other locations such as 'Ain Ghazal, also
engulfed by rapid falls of volcanic ash.
shelled
invertebrates
(organisms
in Syria, where goat toe bones showing the

telltale marks of abrasion caused by foot
1. The word agencies in the passage is
tethering (binding) testify to early herding of
domestic stock.
combinations
problems
forces
11. The word abruptly in the passage is
changes
informally
3. The word terrestrial in the passage is
briefly
suddenly
land
protected
10. The word prospect in the passage is
alternative
similar
completion
variety
Paragraph 4: Petrifaction may also involve a
possibility
simultaneous
speed
exchange
of
the
original
substance of a dead plant or animal with

mineral matter of a different composition.
This process is termed replacement because
TPO-21
solutions have dissolved the original material
Geothermal Energy
and replaced it with an equal volume of the
Paragraph 1: Earth's internal heat, fueled by
new
radioactivity, provides the energy for plate
marvelously precise process, so that details of
tectonics and continental drift, mountain
shell ornamentation, tree rings in wood, and
building, and earthquakes. It can also be
delicate structures in bone are accurately
harnessed to drive electric generators and heat
preserved.
homes. Geothermal energy becomes available
substance.
Replacement
can
be
in a practical form when underground heat is

8. The word precise in the passage is closest
transferred by water that is heated as it passes
in meaning to
through a subsurface region of hot rocks (a
complex
heat reservoir) that may be hundreds or
quick
thousands of feet deep. The water is usually
exact
naturally occurring groundwater that seeps
reliable
down along fractures in the rock; less typically,

the water is artificially introduced by being
Paragraph 6: Although it is certainly true that
pumped down from the surface. The water is
the possession of hard parts enhances the
brought to the surface, as a liquid or steam,
prospect of preservation, organisms having
through holes drilled for the purpose.
soft tissues and organs are also occasionally

preserved.
Insects
and
even
small
2. The word practical in the passage is
invertebrates have been found preserved in the
hardened resins of conifers and certain other
usable
trees. X-ray examination of thin slabs of rock
plentiful
sometimes reveals the ghostly outlines of
economical
tentacles, digestive tracts, and visual organs of
familiar
a variety of marine creatures. Soft parts,

including skin, hair, and viscera of ice age
Paragraph 2: By far the most abundant form of
mammoths, have been preserved in frozen soil
geothermal energy occurs at the relatively low
or in the oozing tar of oil seeps.
temperatures of 80 to 180 centigrade. Water
circulated through heat reservoirs in this
environmental problems. The surface of the
temperature range is able to extract enough
ground can sink if hot groundwater is
heat to warm residential, commercial, and
withdrawn without being replaced. In addition,
industrial
20,000
water heated geothermally can contain salts
apartments in France are now heated by warm
and toxic materials dissolved from the hot
underground
heat
rock. These waters present a disposal problem
reservoir in a geologic structure near Paris
if they are not returned to the ground from
called the Paris Basin. Iceland sits on a
which they were removed.
spaces.
More
water drawn
than
from
volcanic structure known as the Mid-Atlantic

Ridge. Reykjavik, the capital of Iceland, is
10.
entirely heated by geothermal energy derived
sink related to the problem that water heated
from volcanic heat.
geothermally may contain toxic materials?
How is the problem that the surface may
Both problems could be solved by returning

3. The word abundant in the passage is
groundwater
that
is
removed
from
an
underground heat reservoir back to the
economical
reservoir after heat is extracted from it.
familiar
The problem of sinking is more difficult to
plentiful
solve than is the problem of toxic materials.
useful
Land at the surface sinks because the rock

beneath the surface is weakened when salts
Paragraph 4: Extracting heat from very hot,
and toxic materials are removed from it in the
dry rocks presents a more difficult problem:
process of extracting geothermal energy.
the rocks must be fractured to permit the
Both problems are caused by the fact that
circulation of water, and the water must be
the hot groundwater in a heat reservoir
provided artificially. The rocks are fractured
dissolves the rock, which weakens the rock
by water pumped down at very high pressures.
and makes the water toxic with salt.
Experiments are under way to develop

technologies for exploiting this resource.
The Origins of Agriculture
9. The word exploiting in the passage is
Paragraph 1: How did it come about that
farming developed independently in a number
locating
of
increasing
mainland, Southwest Asia, Central America,
making use of
lowland and highland South America, and
estimating the size of
equatorial Africa) at more or less the same
world
centers
(the
Southeast
Asian
time? Agriculture developed slowly among

Paragraph 5: Like most other energy sources,
populations that had an extensive knowledge
geothermal
of plants and animals. Changing from hunting
energy
presents
some
and gathering to agriculture had no immediate
obviously
advantages.
frequently
To start with, it forced the population to
as a result
abandon
the
nomad's
life
and
become
sedentary, to develop methods of storage and,
Paragraph 5: It is archaeologist Steven
often, systems of irrigation. While hunter
Mithen's thesis, brilliantly developed in his
-gatherers always had the option of moving
book The Prehistory of the Mind (1996), that
elsewhere when the resources were exhausted,
approximately 40,000 years ago the human
this became more difficult with farming.
mind developed cognitive fluidity, that is, the
Furthermore, as the archaeological record
integration of the specializations of the mind:
shows, the state of health of agriculturalists
technical,
was worse than that of their contemporary
understanding the behavior and distribution of
hunter -gatherers.
natural resources), social intelligence, and the
natural
history
(gea
red
to
linguistic capacity. Cognitive fluidity explains

1. The word option in the passage is closest
the
appearance
of
in meaning to
sophisticated speech. Once humans possessed
choice
such a mind, they were able to find an
benefit
imaginative solution to a situation of severe
idea
economic crisis such as the farming dilemma
experience
described
earlier.
art,
religion,
Mithen
proposes
and
the
existence of four mental elements to account

Paragraph 2: Traditionally, it was believed
for the emergence of farming: (1) the ability to
that the transition to agriculture was the result
develop tools that could be used intensively to
of a worldwide population crisis. It was
harvest and process plant resources; (2) the
argued
had
tendency to use plants and animals as the
occupied the whole world, the population
medium to acquire social prestige and power;
started to grow everywhere and food became
(3)
scarce; agriculture would have been a solution
relationships with animals structurally similar
to this problem. We know, however, that
to those developed with peoplespecifically,
contemporary hunter-gatherer societies control
the ability to think of animals as people
their population in a variety of ways. The idea
(anthropomorphism) and of people as animals
of a world population crisis is therefore
(totemism);
unlikely, although population pressure might
manipulate plants and animals.
that
once
hunter-gatherers
the
tendency
and
to
(4)
develop
the
social
tendency
to
have arisen in some areas.

9. The word imaginative in the passage is
3. The word therefore in the passage is
complex
in theory
creative
immediate
of the selfbecomes evident between the first
reliable
and second years of life and shows rapid

elaboration in subsequent years. The undation
for
Autobiographical Memory
the
emergence
of
autobiographical
memory.
Paragraph 1: Think back to your childhood

and try to identify your earliest memory. How
5. The word reasonable in the passage is
old were you? Most people are not able to
recount memories for experiences prior to the
consistent
age of three years, a phenomenon called
sufficient
infantile amnesia. The question of why
apparent
infantile
deep
amnesia
occurs
has
intrigued
psychologists for decades, especially in light

of ample evidence that infants and young
6. The word elaboration in the passage is
children can display impressive memory
capabilities. Many find that understanding the
development
general nature of autobiographical memory,
specialization
that is, memory for events that have occurred
use
in one's own life, can provide some important
transformation
clues to this mystery. Between ages three and

four, children begin to give fairly lengthy and
cohesive descriptions of events in their past.
TPO-22
What
Spartina
factors
are
responsible
for
this
developmental turning
.Paragraph 3: Spartina is an exceedingly
point?
competitive plant. It spreads primarily by

underground stems; colonies form when
1. The word ample in the passage is closest
pieces of the root system or whole plants float
in meaning to
into an area and take root or when seeds float
surprising
into a suitable area and germinate. Spartina
convincing
establishes itself on substrates ranging from
plentiful
sand and silt to gravel and cobble and is
questionable
tolerant of salinities ranging from that of near

freshwater (0.05 percent) to that of salt water
Paragraph 3: Another suggestion is that before
(3.5 percent). Because they lack oxygen,
children can talk about past events in their
marsh sediments are high in sulfides that are
lives, they need to have a reasonable
toxic to most plants. Spartina has the ability to
understanding of the self as a psychological
take up sulfides and convert them to sulfate, a
entity. The development of an understanding
form of sulfur that the plant can use; this
ability makes it easier for the grass to colonize

marsh
environments.
Another
Failures
adaptive
advantage is Spartinas ability to use carbon

dioxide more efficiently than most other
The Birth of Photography
plants.
Paragraph 4: The two processes produced very

different results. The daguerreotype was a
5. The word exceedingly in the passage is
unique image that reproduced what was in
front of the camera lens in minute, unselective
unusually
detail and could not be duplicated. The
dangerously
calotype could be made in series, and was thus
surprisingly
the equivalent of an etching or an engraving.
highly
Its general effect was soft edged and tonal.
Paragraph 6: Efforts to control Spartina
2. The word duplicated in the passage is
outside its natural environment have inc luded
burning, flooding, shading plants with black
copied
canvas or plastic, smothering the plants with
replaced
dredged materials or clay, applying herbicide,
handled
and mowing repeatedly. Little success has
clarified
been reported in New Zealand and England;

Washington States managemen tprogram has
Paragraph 5: One of the things that most
tried many of these methods and is presently
impressed
using the herbicide glyphosphate to control its
photography was the idea of authenticity.
spread. Work has begun to determine the
Nature now seemed able to speak for itself,
feasibility of using insects as biological
with a minimum of interference. The title
controls, but effective biological controls are
Talbot chose for his book, The Pencil of
considered years away. Even with a massive
Nature (the first part of which was published
effort, it is doubtful that complete eradication
in 1844), reflected this feeling. Artists were
of Spartina from nonnative habitats is possible,
fascinat ed by photography because it offered
for it has become an integral part of these
a way of examining the world in much greater
shorelines and estuaries during the last 100 to
detail. They were also afraid of it,
200 years.
because it seemed likely to make their own
the
original
audience
for
efforts unnecessary.
10. The word Efforts in the passage is
5. The word authenticity in the passage is
Laws
Suggestions
improvement
Attempts
practicality
genuineness
subjects were unaware that their pictures were
repetition
being
takenconfirmed
these
scientific
results, and at the same time, thanks to the

Paragraph 7: In the long term, photography's
radical cropping (trimming) of images that the
impact on the visual arts was far from simple.
camera
Because the medium was so prolific, in the
compositional formats. The accidental effects
sense that it was possible to produce a
obtained by candid photographers were soon
multitude of images very cheaply, it was soon
being copied by artists such as the French
treated as the poor relation of fine art, rather
painter Degas.
than its destined successor. Even those artists
9. The word unanticipated in the passage is
who were most dependent on photography
became reluctant to admit that they made use
indirect
of
not expected
it,
in
case
this
compromised
their
often
imposed,
suggested
new
unquestionable
professional standing.
beneficial
7. The word reluctant in the passage is
10. The word accidental in the passage is
unable
embarrassed
surprising
unlikely
unintentional
unwilling
realistic
unusual
Paragraph 8: The rapid technical development

of photography the introduction of lighter
and simpler equipment, and of new emulsions
The Allende Meteorite
that coated photographic plates, film, and
Paragraph 1: Sometime after midnight on
paper and enabled images to be made at much
February 8,1969, a large, bright meteor
faster
unanticipated
entered Earth's atmosphere and broke into
consequences. Scientific experiments made by
thousands of pieces, plummeted to the ground,
photographers such as Eadweard Muybridge
and scattered over an area 50 miles long and
(1830-1904)
Marey
10 miles wide in the state of Chihuahua in
(1830-1904) demonstrated that the movements
Mexico. The first meteorite from this fall was
of both humans and animals differed widely
found in the village of Pueblito de Allende.
from the way they had been traditionally
Altogether, roughly two tons of meteorite
represented in art. Artists, often reluctantly,
fragments were recovered, all of which bear
were forced to accept the evidence provided
the name Allende for the location of the first
by the camera. The new candid photography
discovery.
speedshad
and
some
Etienne-Jules
unposed pictures that were made when the
1. The word location' in the passage is closest
modification
in meaning to
resemblance
sight
reference
sake
success
5. The word enigmatic in the passage is
place
dangerous
Paragraph 3: The Allende meteorite is
mysterious
classified as a chondrite. Chondrites take their
interesting
name
surprising
from
the
Greek
word
chondrosmeaning seedan allusion to

their appearance as rocks containing tiny
Paragraph 5: Chondrules and inclusions in
seeds. These seeds are actually chondrules:
Allende are held together by the chondrite
millimeter-sized melted droplets of silicate
matrix, a mixture of fine-grained, mostly
material that were cooled into spheres of glass
silicate minerals that also includes grains of
and crystal. A few chondrules contain grains
iron metal and iron sulfide. At one time it was
that survived the melting event, so these
thought that these matrix grains might be
enigmatic chondrules must have formed when
pristine nebular dust, the sort of stuff from
compact masses of nebular dust were fused at
which chondrules and inclusions were made.
high
1,700
However, detailed studies of the chondrite
degrees Celsiusand then cooled before these
matrix suggest that much of it, too, has been
surviving grains could melt. Study of the
formed by condensation
textures of chondrules confirms that they
or melting in the nebula, although minute
cooled rather quickly, in times measured in
amounts of surviving interstellar dust are
minutes or hours, so the heating events that
mixed with the processed materials.
temperaturesapproaching
formed them must have been localized. It

seems very
8. The word pristine in the passage is closest
unlikely that large portions of the nebula were
in meaning to
heated to such extreme temperatures, and huge
pure
nebula areas could not possibly have lost heat
solid
so fast. Chondrules must have been melted in
ordinary
small pockets of the nebula that were able to
trapped
loseheat rapidly. The origin of these peculiar

glassy spheres remains an enigma.
TPO-23
4. The word allusion in the passage is closest
Urban Climates
in meaning to
Paragraph 1: The city is an extraordinary
addition
processor of mass and energy and has its own
metabolism. A daily input of water, food, and
Paragraph 4: Cities, then, are warmer than the
energy of various kinds is matched by an
surrounding rural areas, and together they
output of sewage, solid waste, air pollutants,
produce a phenomenon known as the urban
energy,
been
heat island. Heat islands develop best under
transformed in some way. The quantities
particular conditions associated with light
involved are enormous. Many aspects of this
winds, but they can form almost any time. The
energy use affect the atmosphere of a city,
precise configuration of a heat island depends
particularly in the production of heat.
on several factors. For example, the wind can
and
materials
that
have
make a heat island stretch in the direction it

1. The word enormous in the passage is
blows. When a heat island is well developed,
variations can be extreme; in winter, busy
growing
streets in cities can be 1.7 warmer than the
frightening
side streets. Areas near traffic lights can be
very large
similarly warmer than the areas between them
strictly controlled
because of the effect of cars standing in traffic

instead of moving. The maximum differences
Paragraph 2: In winter the heat produced by a
in temperature between neighboring urban and
city can equal or surpass the amount of heat
rural environments is called the heat-island
available from the Sun. All the heat that
intensity for that region. In general, the larger
warms a building eventually transfers to the
the city, the greater its heat-island intensity.
surrounding air, a process that is quickest
The actual level of intensity depends on such
where houses are poorly insulated. But an
factors as the physical layout, population
automobile produces enough heat to warm an
density,
average house in winter , and if a house were
metropolis.
and
productive
activities
of
perfectly insulated, one adult could also

produce more than enough heat to warm it.
7. The word configuration in the passage is
Therefore,
even
without
any
industrial
production of heat, an urban area tends to be
location
warmer than the countryside that surrounds it.
history
temperature
2. The word surpass in the passage is closest
shape
in meaning to
remain below
Paragraph
5:
The
be higher than
relationships
add to
produce a number of climatic peculiarities.
come close to
For one thing, the presence or absence of
inside
surface-atmosphere
metropolitan
areas
moisture is affected by the special qualities of

the urban surface. With much of the built-up
landscape impenetrable by water, even gentle
vegetables. The produce was then transported
rain runs off almost immediately from
by water to markets in the cities, where the
rooftops, streets, and parking lots. Thus, city
consumption of fruit and vegetables was no
surfaces, as well as the air above them, tend to
longer restricted to the wealthy.
be drier between episodes of rain; with little

water available for the cooling process of
5. The word consumption in the passage is
evaporation, relative humidities are usually
lower. Wind movements are also modified in
sale
cities because buildings increase the friction
storage
on air flowing around them. This friction
exportation
tends to slow the speed of winds, making them
utilization
far less efficient at dispersing pollutants. On

the other hand, air turbulence increases
Paragraph 5: The Dutch battle against the sea
because of the effect of skyscrapers on airflow.
is legendary. Noorderkwartier in Holland,
Rainfall is also increased in cities. The cause
with its numerous lakes and stretches of water,
appears to be in part greater turbulence in the
was particularly suitable for land reclamation
urban atmosphere as hot air rises from the
and one of the biggest projects undertaken
built-up surface.
there was the draining of the Beemster lake

which began in 1608. The richest merchants in
11. The word modified in the passage is
Amsterdam contributed money to reclaim a
good 7,100 hectares of land. Forty -three
changed
windmills powered the drainage pumps so that
blocked
they were able to lease the reclamation to
increased
farmers as early as 1612, with the investors
weakened
receiving annual leasing payments at an

interest rate of 17 percent. Land reclamation
continued, and between 1590 and 1665,
Seventeenth-Century Dutch Agriculture
almost 100,000 hectares were reclaimed from
Paragraph 3: In addition to dairy farming and
the wetland areas of Holland, Zeeland, and
cultivating industrial crops, a third sector of
Friesland.
the Dutch economy reflected the way in which
decreased significantly after the middle of the
agriculture was being modernized-horticulture.
seventeenth century because the price of
In the sixteenth century, fruit and vegetables
agricultural products began to fall, making
were to be found only in gardens belonging to
land reclamation far less profitable in the
wealthy people. This changed in the early part
second part of the century.
However,
land
reclamation
of the seventeenth century when horticulture

became accepted as an agricultural sector.
8. The word they in the passage refers to
Whole villages began to cultivate fruit and
merchants
hectares
Rock Art of the Australia Aborigines
windmills
Paragraph 1: Ever since European first
drainage pumps
explored Australia, people have been trying to

understand the ancient rock drawings and
10. The word legendary in the passage is
cavings created by the Aborigines, the original
inhabitants of the continent. Early in the
continuous
nineteenth
well documented
Aboriginal rock art tended to be infrequent
famous
and open to speculative interpretation, but
expensive
since the late nineteenth century, awareness of
century,
encounters
with
the extent and variety of Australian rock art

Paragraph 6: Dutch agriculture was finally
has been growing. In the latter decades of the
affected by the general agricultural crisis in
twentieth century there were intensified efforts
Europe during the last two decades of the
to understand and record the abundance of
seventeenth
Australian rock art.
century.
However,
what
is
astonishing about this is not that Dutch

agriculture was affected by critical phenomena
1. The word infrequent in the passage is
such as a decrease in sales and production, but
the fact that the crisis appeared only relatively
puzzling
late in Dutch agriculture. In Europe as a whole,
uncommon
the exceptional reduction in the population
questionable
and the related fall in demand for grain since
undocumented
the beginning of the seventeenth century had

caused the price of agricultural products to fall.
Paragraph 2: The systematic study of this art
Dutch peasants were able to remain unaffected
is a relatively new discipline in Australia.
by this crisis for a long time because they had
Over the past four decades new discoveries
specialized in dairy farming industrial crops,
have steadily added to the body of knowledge.
and horticulture. However, toward the end of
The most significant data have come from a
the seventeenth century, they too were
concentration on three major questions. First,
overtaken by the general agricultural crisis.
what is the age of Australian rock art? Second,

what is its stylistic organization and is it
11. The word astonishing in the passage is
possible to discern a sequence or a pattern of
development between styles? Third, is it
incredible
possible to interpret accurately the subject
unfortunate
matter of ancient rock art, bring to bear all
predicted
available archaeological techniques and the
evident
knowledge
informants?
of
present-day
Aboriginal
3. The word relatively in the passage is
by each route? Discovering the inputs and
outputs of rivers is a matter of measuring the
completely
discharges of every inflowing and outflowing
comparatively
stream and river. Then exchanges with the
apparently
atmosphere are calculated by finding the
particularly
difference between the gains from rain, as

measured (rather roughly) by rain gauges, and
4. The word discern in the passage is closest
the losses by evaporation, measured with
in meaning to
models that correct for the other sources of
indicate
water loss. For the majority of lakes, certainly
apply
those surrounded by forests, input from
identify
overland flow is too small to have a noticeable
repeat
effect. Changes in lake level not explained by

river
flows
plus
exchanges
with
the
Paragraph 3: The age of Australias rock art is
atmosphere must be due to the net difference
constantly being revised, and earlier datings
between what seeps into the lake from the
have been proposed as the result of new
groundwater
discoveries.
scientific
groundwater. Note the word net: measuring
evidence dates the earliest creation of art on
the actual amounts of groundwater seepage
rock surfaces in Australia to somewhere
into the lake and out of the lake is a much
between 30,000 and 50,000 years ago. This in
more complicated matter than merely inferring
itself is an almost incomprehensible span of
their difference.
Currently,
reliable
and
what
leaks
into
the
generations, and one that makes Australias

rock art the oldest continuous art tradition in
2. The word gains in the passage is closest in
the world.
meaning to
results
5. The word revised in the passage is closest
increases
in meaning to
resources
discussed
savings
raised
challenged
Paragraphy3: Once all this information has

been gathered, it becomes possible to judge
whether a lakes flow is mainly due to its
Tpo24
surface
inputs
Lake Water
underground inputs and outputs. If the former
Paragraphy2: The questions become more
are
complicated when actual volumes of water are
surface-water-dominated lake; if the latter, it
considered: how much water enters and leaves
is a seepage-dominated lake. Occasionally,
greater,
and
the
outputs
lake
or
to
is
its
a
common sense tells you which of
dioxide and a decrease of oxygen in the blood
these two possibilities applies. For example, a
that persists during NREM.
pond in hilly country that maintains a steady

water level all through a dry summer in spite
3. The word exclusive in the passage is closest
of having no streams flowing into it must
in meaning to
obviously be seepage dominated. Conversely,
consistent
a pond with a stream flowing in one end and
perfect
out the other, which dries up when the stream
partial
dries up, is clearly surface water dominated.
sole
5. The word Conversely meaning to
Paragraphy5: Other respiratory regulat ing
on the other hand
mechanisms apparently cease functioning
in the same way
during sleep. For example, during wakefulness
in other words
there is an immediate, automatic, adaptive
on average
increase in breathing effort when inhaling is

made more difficult (such as breathing
through a restrictive face mask). This reflexive
Breathing During Sleep
adjustment is totally absent during NREM
Paragraphy3: During NREM (the phase of
sleep. Only after several inadequate breaths
sleep in which there is no rapid eye movement)
under such conditions, resulting in the
breathing becomes deeper and more regular,
considerable elevat ion of carbon dioxide and
but there is also a decrease in the breathing
reduction of oxygen in the blood, is breathing
rate, resulting in less air being exchanged
effort adjusted. Finally, the coughing reflex in
overall. This occurs because during NREM
reaction to irritants in the airway produces not
sleep the automatic, metabolic system has
a cough during sleep but a cessation of
exclusive control over breathing and the body
breathing. If the irritation is severe enough, a
uses less oxygen and produces less carbon
sleeping person will arouse, clear the airway,
dioxide. Also, during sleep the automatic
then resume breathing and likely return to
metabolic system is less responsive to carbon
sleep.
dioxide levels and oxygen levels in the blood.

Two things result from these changes in
9. The word considerable meaning to
breathing control that occur during sleep. First,
significant
there may be a brief cessation or reduction of
Steady
breathing when falling asleep as the sleeper
Usual
waxes
necessary
and
wakefulness
wanes
and
between
their
sleep
differing
and
control
mechanisms. Second, once sleep is fully
10. The word resume in the passage is closest
obtained, there is an increase of carbon
in meaning to
reduce
2. The word intense in the passage is closest in
stop
meaning to
Readjust
strong
restart
questionable
obvious
deliberate
Moving into Pueblos

Paragraphy1: In the Mesa Verde area of the
Paragraphy4: Another important push was the
ancient North American Southwest, living
onset of the Little Ice Age, a climatic
patterns changed in the thirteenth century,
phenomenon that led to cooler temperatures in
with large numbers of people moving into
the Northern Hemisphere. Although the height
large communal dwellings called pueblos,
of the Little Ice Age was still around the
often constructed at the edges of canyons,
corner,
especially on the sides of cliffs. Abandoning
temperatures were falling during the thirteenth
small extended-family households to move
century.
into these large pueblos with dozens if not
associated with this transition are not fully
hundreds of other people was probably
understood, but people living closest to the
traumatic. Few of the cultural traditions and
San Juan Mountains, to the northeast of Mesa
rules that today allow us to deal with dense
Verde, were affected first. Growing food at
populations
people
these elevations is always difficult because of
accustomed to household autonomy and the
the short growing season. As the Little Ice
ability to move around the landscape almost at
Age progressed, farmers probably moved their
will. And besides the awkwardness of having
fields to lower elevations, infringing on the
to share walls with neighbors, living in
lands of other farmers and pushing people
aggregated pueblos introduced other problems.
together, thus contributing to the aggregations.
For people in cliff dwellings, hauling water,
Archaeologists identify a corresponding shift
wood, and food to their homes was a major
in populations toward the south and west
chore. The stress on local resources, especially
toward Mesa Verde and away from higher
in the firewood needed for daily cooking and
elevations.
warmth,
existed
was
for
particularly
these
intense,
some
The
evidence
suggests
environmental
that
changes
and
conditions in aggregated pueblos were not
7. The word transition in the passage is closest
very hygienic.
in meaning to
change
1. The word traumatic meaning to
climate
Essential
decline
highly stressful
problem
highly unusual
unwise
TPO-25
The surface of Mars
Paragraph 1: The surface of Mars shows a
wide range of geologic features, including
Deep
Complex
Characteristic
Ancient
huge volcanoes-the largest known in the solar

system-and extensive impact cratering. Three
Paragraph 3: The great height of Martian
very large volcanoes are found on the Tharsis
volcanoes is a direct consequence of the
bulge, an enormous geologic area near Mars's
planet's low surface gravity. As lava flows and
equator. Northwest of Tharsis is the largest
spreads to form a shield volcano, the volcano's
volcano of all: Olympus Mons, with a height
eventual
of 25 kilometers and measuring some 700
mountain's ability to support its own weight.
kilometers in diameter at its base. The three
The lower the gravity, the lesser the weight
large volcanoes on the Tharsis bulge are a
and the greater the height of the mountain. It
little smaller-a mere 18 kilometers high.
is no accident that Maxwell Mons on Venus
height
depends
on
the
new
and the Hawaiian shield volcanoes on Earth

1 The word enormous in the passage is
rise to about the same height (about 10
kilometers) above their respective bases-Earth
Important
Extremely large
Highly unusual
Active
and Venus have similar surface gravity. Mars's

surface gravity is only 40 percent that of Earth,
so volcanoes rise roughly 2.5 times as high.
Are the Martian shield volcanoes still active?
Scientists have no direct evidence for recent or
Paragraph 2: None of these volcanoes was
ongoing eruptions, but if these volcanoes were
formed as a result of collisions between plates
active as recently as 100 million, years ago (an
of the Martian crust-there is no plate motion
estimate of the time of last eruption based on
on
the extent of impact cratering on their slopes),
Mars.
Instead,
volcanoes-volcanoes
they
with
are
shield
broad,
sloping
some
of
them
may
still
be
at
least
slides formed by molten rock. All four show
intermittently active. Millions of years, though,
distinctive lava channels and other flow
may pass between eruptions.
features similar to those found on shield

volcanoes on Earth. Images of the Martian
5 The word roughly in the passage is closest
surface reveal many hundreds of volcanoes.
in meaning to
Most of the largest volcanoes are associated
Typically
Frequently
Actually
Approximately
with the Tharsis bulge, but many smaller ones

are found in the northern plains.
3 The word distinctive in the passage is
Paragraph 4: Another prominent feature of
much of their economic might.
Mars's surface is cratering. The Mariner

spacecraft found that the surface of Mars, as
1. The word resurgence in the passage is
well as that of its two moons, is pitted with
impact craters formed by meteoroids falling in
ransformation
comeback
program
expansion
from space. As on our Moon, the smaller

craters
are
often
filled
with
surface
matter-mostly dust-confirming that Mars is a

dry desert world. However, Martian craters
get filled in considerably faster than their
Paragraph 2: This decline can be seen clearly
lunar counterparts. On the Moon, ancient
in the changes that affected Venetian shipping
craters
and
less
than
100
meters
across
trade.
First,
Venic's
intermediary
(corresponding to depths of about 20 meters)
functions in the Adriatic Sea, where it had
have been obliterated, primarily by meteoritic
dominated the business of shipping for other
erosion. On Mars, there are relatively few
parties, were lost to direct trading. In the
craters less than 5 kilometers in diameter. The
fifteenth century there was little problem
Martian atmosphere is an efficient erosive
recruiting sailors to row the galleys (large
agent, with Martian winds transporting dust
ships propelled by oars): guilds (business
from place to place and erasing surface
associations) were required to provide rowers,
features much faster than meteoritic impacts
and through a draft system free citizens served
alone can obliterate them.
compulsorily when called for. In the early

sixteenth century the shortage of rowers was
8 The word considerably in the passage is
not serious because the demand for galleys
was limited by a move to round ships
Frequently
Significantly
Clearly
Surprisingly
(round-hulled ships with more cargo space),

with required fewer rowers. But the shortage
of crews proved to be a greater and greater
problem, despite continuous appeal to Venic's
tradition of maritime greatness. Even though
sailors' wages doubled among the northern
The Decline of Venetian Shipping
Italian cities from 1550 to 1590, this did not
Paragraph 1: In the late thirteenth century,
elicit an increased supply.
northern Italian cities such as Genoa, Florence,

and Venice began an economic resurgence
2. The word compulsorily in the passage is
that made them into the most important
economic
for free
for a time
by requirement
centers
of
Europe.
By
the
seventeenth century, however, other European

powers had taken over, as the Italian cities lost
by design
9. The word conventional in the passage is
Paragraph 3: The problem in shipping
extended to the Arsenate, Venice's huge and
informal
logical
correct
usual
powerful shipyard. Timber ran short, and it

was necessary to procure it from father and
father away. In ancient Roman times, the
Italian peninsula had great forest of fir
preferred for warships, but scarcity was
apparent as early as the early fourteenth
The Evolutionary Origin of Plants
century. Arsenate officers first brought timber
Paragraph 1: The evolutionary history of
from the foothills of the Alps, then from north
plants has been marked a series of adaptations.
toward Trieste, and finally from across the
The ancestors of plants were photosynthetic
Adriatic. Private shipbuilders were required to
single-celled organisms that gave rise to plants
buy their oak abroad. As the costs of
presumably lacked true roots, stems, leaves,
shipbuilding rose, Venice clung to its outdated
and complex reproductive structures such as
standard while the Dutch were innovation in
flowers. All of these features appeared later in
the lighter and more easily handled ships.
the evolutionary history of plants. Of today's

different groups of algae, green algae are
5. The word outdated in the passage is
probably the most similar to ancestral plants.
This supposition stems from
strict
enforced
improved
old-fashioned
phylogenetic
(natural
the close
evolutionary)
relationship between the two groups. DNA

comparisons have shown that green algae are
plants' closest living relatives. In addition,
other lines of evidence support the hypothesis
Paragraph 5: The conventional explanation for
that land plants evolved from ancestral green
the loss of Venetian dominance in trade is
algae used the same type of chlorophyll and
establishment of the Portuguese direct sea
accessory pigments in photosynthesis as do
route to the East, replacing the overland Silk
land plants. This would not be true of red and
Road from the Black sea and the highly
brown algae. Green algae store food as starch,
profitable
as do land plants and have cell walls made of
Indian
Ocean-caravan-eastern
The
cellulose, similar in composition to those of
Portuguese Vasco de Gama's Voyaga around
land plants. Again, the good storage and cell
southern Afica to India took place at the end
wall molecules of red and brown algae are
of the fifteenth century, and by 1502 the trans-
different.
Mediterranean
route
to
Venice.
Abrabian caravan route had been cut off by

political unrest.
1. The word presumably in the passage is

5. The word desolate in the passage is

originally
supposedly
obviously
usually
dusty
hardened
deserted
dried out
Paragraph 2: Today green algae live mainly in
Paragraph 5: When plants pioneered the land,
freshwater,
they faced a range of challenges posed by
suggesting
that
their
early
evolutionary history may have occurred in
terrestrial
freshwater habitats. If so, the green algae
supportive buoyancy of water is missing, the
would have been subjected to environmental
plant is no longer bathed in a nutrient solution,
pressures that resulted in adaptations that
and air tends to dry things out. These
enhanced their potential to give rise to
conditions favored the evolution of the
land-dwelling or organisms.
structures that support the body, vessels that
environments.
On
land,
the
transport water and nutrients to all parts of

3. The phrase subjected to in the passage is
plant, and structures that conserve water. The
closest in
resulting adaptations to dry land include some
restricted by
distant from
exposed to
combined with
structural features that arose early in plant

evolution; now these features are common to
virtually all land plant. They include roots or
root like structures, a waxy cuticle that covers
the surfaces of leaves and stems and limits the
Paragraph 4: The terrestrial world is green
evaporation of water, and pores called stomata
now, but it did not start out that way. When
in leaves and stems that allow gas exchange
plants first made the transition ashore more
but close when water is scarce, thus reducing
than 400 million years ago, the land was
water loss. Other adaptations occurred later in
barren and desolate, inhospitable to life. From
the transition to terrestrial life and now wide
a plant's evolutionary view point, however, it
spread but not universal among plants. These
was also a land of opportunity, free of
include conducting vessels that transport water
competitors, and predator arid full of carbon
and minerals upward from the roots and that
dioxide and sunlight (the raw materials for
move the photosynthetic products from the
photosynthesis, which are present in far higher
leaves to the rest of the plant body and the
concentrations in air than in water). So once
stiffening substance lignin, which support the
natural selection had shaped the adaptations
plant body, helping it expose maximum
that helped plants overcome the obstacles to
surface area to sunlight.
terrestrial
diversified.
living,
plants
prospered
and
8. The word posed in the passage is closest
coal seams found below the water table.
in meaning to
shared
presented
strengthened
concealed
4. The phrase apparent in the passage is

clearly seen to
aided by
associated with
followed by
TPO-26
Energy and the Industrial Revolution
6. The word consequent in the passage is
Paragraph 2: In the late 1700s James Watt
designed an efficient and commercially viable
resulting
steam engine that was soon applied to a
encouraging
variety of industrial uses as it became cheaper
well documented
to use. The engine helped solve the problem of
immediate
draining coal mines of groundwater and

increased the production of coal needed to
Paragraph 4: Steam power and iron combined
power steam engines elsewhere. A rotary
to revolutionize transport, which in turn had
engine attached to the steam engine enabled
further implications. Improvements in road
shafts to be turned and machines to be driven,
construction and sailing had occurred, but
resulting in mills using steam power to spin
shipping heavy freight over land remained
and weave cotton. Since the steam engine was
expensive, even with the use of rivers and
fired by coal, the large mills did not need to be
canals wherever possible. Parallel rails had
located by rivers, as had mills that used water-
long been used in mining operations to move
driven machines. The shift to increased
bigger loads, but horses were still the primary
mechanization
source of power. However, the arrival of the
in
cotton
production
is
apparent in the import of raw cotton and
steam engine initiated
the sale of cotton goods. Between 1760 and
transformation
1850, the amount of raw cotton imported
entrenching and expanding the Industrial
increased 230 times. Production of British
Revolution.
cotton goods increased sixtyfold, and cotton
distant and larger markets within the nation
cloth became Great Britains most important
could be reached, thereby encouraging the
product, accounting for one-half of all exports.
development of larger factories to keep pace
The success of the steam engine resulted in
with increasing sales. Greater productivity and
increased
the
rising demands provided entrepreneurs with
consequent increase in coal production
profits that could be reinvested to take
was made possible as the steam-powered
advantage of new technologies to further
pumps drained water from the ever-deeper
expand capacity, or to seek alternative
demands
for
coal,
and
As
in
rail
a complete
transportation,
transportation
improved,
the
to the aridity by means of various avoidance
availability of jobs in railway construction
mechanisms. Most desert plants are probably
attracted many rural laborers accustomed to
best classified as xerophytes. They possess
seasonal and temporary employment. When
drought-resisting adaptations: loss of water
the work was completed, many moved to
through the leaves is reduced by means of
other construction jobs or to factory work in
dense hairs covering waxy leaf surfaces, by
cities and towns, where they became part of an
the closure of pores during the hottest times to
expanding working class.
reduce water loss, and by the rolling up or
investment
opportunities.
Also,
shedding of leaves at the beginning of the dry

10. The word initiated in the passage is
season. Some xerophytes, the succulents
(including cacti), store water in their structures.
anticipated
Another way of countering drought is to
accelerated
have a limited amount of mass above ground
spread
and to have extensive root networks below
started
ground. It is not unusual for the roots of some

desert perennials to extend downward more
than ten meters. Some plants are woody in
Survival of Plants and Animals in Desert
type an adaptation designed to prevent
Conditions
collapse of the plant tissue when water stress
Paragraph 3: The ephemeral plants evade
produces wilting. Another class of desert plant
drought.
favorable
is the phreatophyte. These have adapted to the
develop
environment by the development of long
vigorously and produce large numbers of
taproots that penetrate downward until they
flowers and fruit. This replenishes the seed
approach the assured
content of the desert soil. The seeds then lie
provided by groundwater. Among these plants
dormant until the next wet year, when the
are the date palm, tamarisk, and mesquite.
desert blooms again.
They commonly grow near stream channels,
Given
precipitation,
such
year
plants
of
will
water supply
springs, or on the margins of lakes.

4. In saying that ephemerals will develop
vigorously
when
there
is
favorable
5. The word countering in the passage is
precipitation, the author means that their
development will be
eliminating
sudden
making use of
early
acting against
gradual
experiencing
strong and healthy

7. The word assured in the passage is closest
Paragraph 4: The perennial vegetation adjusts
in meaning to
pure
maintain
diminished
Transform
guaranteed
deep
Paragraph 2: It is difficult to isolate the factors

that
led
to
the
next
developmentthe
emergence of urban settlements. The earliest,

Sumer and the First Cities of the Ancient
that of Eridu, about 4500 B.C.E., and Uruk, a
near East
thousand years later, center on impressive
Paragraph 1: The earliest of the city states of
temple complexes built of mud brick. In some
the ancient Near East appeared at the southern
way, the elite had associated themselves with
end of the Mesopotamian plain, the area
the power of the gods. Uruk, for instance, had
between the Tigris and Euphrates rivers in
two patron godsAnu, the god of the sky and
what is now Iraq. It was here that the
sovereign of all other gods, and Inanna, a
civilization known as Sumer emerged in its
goddess of love and warand there were
earliest form in the fifth millennium. At first
others, patrons of different cities. Human
sight, the plain did not appear to be a likely
beings were at their mercy. The biblical story
home for a civilization. There were few
of the Flood may originate in Sumer. In the
natural resources, no timber, stone, or metals.
earliest version, the gods destroy the human
Rainfall was limited, and what water there
race because its clamor had been so disturbing
was rushed across the plain in the annual flood
to them.
of melted snow. As the plain fell only 20

meters in 500 kilometers, the beds of the
5. The word sovereign in the passage is
rivers shifted constantly. It was this that made
the organization of irrigation, particularly the
Counselor
building of canals to channel and preserve the
Master
water, essential. Once this was done and the
Defender
silt carried down by the rivers was planted, the
Creator
rewards were rich: four to five times what

rain-fed earth would produce. It was these
Paragraph 4: Other innovations of the late
conditions that allowed an elite to emerge,
fourth millennium include the wheel, probably
probably as an organizing class, and to
developed first as a more efficient way of
sustain itself through the control of
making pottery and then transferred to
surplus crops.
transport. A tablet engravedabout 3000

B.C.E. provides the earliest known example
3. The word sustain in the passage is closest
from Sumer, a roofed boxlike sledge mounted
in meaning to
on four solid wheels. A major development
defend
was the discovery, again about 3000 B.C.E.,
promote
that if copper, which had been known in
Mesopotamia since about 3500 B.C.E., was

mixed with tin, a much harder metal, bronze,
would result. Although copper and stone
tools continued to be used, bronze was far
more successful in creating sharp edges that
could be used as anything from saws and
scythes to weapons. The period from 3000 to
1000 B.C.E., when the use of bronze became
widespread, is normally referred to as the
Bronze Age.
10. The word engraved in the passage is

carved
produced
dated
discovered
12. The word widespread in the passage is
obvious
significant
necessary
common
TPO1
2.C
7.A
9.C
1.D
2.A
5.C
6.C
10.B
1.D
5.C
6.B
7.B
11.B
11.C
1.A
5.C
7.A
9.C
2.C
4.A
12.B
3.B
6.D
7.B
8.B
11.D
TPO12
TPO3
2.C
3.B
5.B
6.A
10.A
4.D
6.C
7.D
10.C
1.C
8.B
10.C
3.C
10.A
1.B
3.D
6.A
9.A
2.D
5.D
7.B
10.C
12.D
TPO13
TPO4
3.C
10.B
1.A
3.A
5.D
1.B
5.A
9.B
1.B
3.C
10.4
1.A
4.C
9.A
2.C
5.B
8.D
11.A
12.B
11.C
TPO5
TPO 14
2B
3B
5C
7D
3A
6B
10C
1B
2C
3A
8D
4B
7C
9A
10D
TPO6
11C
2.A
6.B
4.A
10.C
1.D
3.B
9.D
11.B
11.A
7.C
8.A
TPO 15
3.A
4.C
9.D
1.C
5.A
8.A
9.D
2.B
3.C
7.A
8.D
10.D
12.B
3.A
5.D
3.D
11.D
1.B
3.D
6.B
4.C
7.D
11.A
10.A
TPO 16
TPO7
1.C
8.B
11.C
6.D
1.C
7.B
8.C
11.C
11.B
2.B
6.D
9.A
1.D
7.C
12.A
2.D
5.B
10.A
TPO8
8.C
TPO 17
1.C
2.B
3.A
4.D
4.A
6.D
9.B
11.B
1.C
5.B
10.B
1.A
3.A
4.B
11.A
1.B
3.C
8.B
11.A
2.B
4.D
7.C
11.B
11.D
12.B
TPO9
2.C
7.A
8.D
10.B
1.A
3.C
6.A
9.B
4.B
5.A
7.D
9.D
12.D
10.B
TPO 18
5.A
6.A
8.C
3.A
5.D
7.C
10.D
2.C
4.B
8.C
12.A
TPO10
1.B
3.C
6.D
5.A
7.C
10.B
2.C
6.B
TPO11
8.A
11.B
12.B
TPO 19
4.D
5.B
7.A
12.C
2.A
3.D
4.B
5.C
9.C
1.D
2.B
4.A
8.C
TPO 20
3.A
7.A
9.A
10.B
1.C
3.D
4.B
6.D
1.C
3.A
8.C
10.C
10.A
8.C
TPO 21
2.A
3.C
9.C
1.A
3.D
9.B
1.C
5.B
6.A
TPO 22
5.D
10.C
2.A
5.C
7.D
9.B
1.D
4.D
5.B
8.A
11.A
10.B
TPO 23
1.C
2.B
7.D
5.D
8.A
10.C
1.B
3.B
4.A
11.A
5.D
TPO 24
2.B
5.A
9.A
10.D
1.B
2.A
6.A
TPO 25
1.B
3.C
5.D
8.B
1.B
2.C
5.D
9.D
1.B
3.C
5.C
8.B
TPO 26
4.A
6.A
10.D
5.D
6.C
7.C
3.C
5.B
10.A
12.D
11.C

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Paragraph 1: Groundwater is the word used to

describe water that saturates the ground,

sediments, too, contain millions of minute

filling all the available spaces. By far the most

water-holding pores. This is because the gaps

abundant type of groundwater is meteoric

among the original grains are often not

water; this is the groundwater that circulates

totally plugged with

as part of the water cycle. Ordinary meteoric

also, parts of the original grains may become

water is water that has soaked into the ground

dissolved by percolating groundwater, either

from the surface, from precipitation (rain and

while consolidation is taking place or at any

snow) and from lakes and streams. There it

time afterwards. The result is that sandstone,

remains, sometimes for long periods, before

for example, can be as porous as the loose

emerging at the surface again. At first thought

sand from which it was formed.

it seems incredible that there can be enough

9. The word plugged in the passage is closet

all this water.

2. The word incredible in the passage is

The Origins of Theater

Paragraph 4: In lowland country almost any

of theater, one must rely primarily on

spot on the ground may overlie what was once

speculation, since there is little concrete

the bed of a river that has since become buried

evidence on which to draw. The most widely

by soil; if they are now below the waters

upper surface (the water table), the gravels

anthropologists in the late nineteenth and early

and sands of the former riverbed, and its

twentieth centuries, envisions theater as

sandbars, will be saturated with groundwater.

emerging out of myth and ritual. The process

perceived by these anthropologists may be

summarized briefly. During the early stages of

its development, a society becomes aware of

forces that appear to influence or control its

food supply and well-being. Having little

understanding of natural causes, it attributes

both desirable and undesirable occurrences to

supernatural or magical forces, and it searches

the first step has been taken toward theater as

for means to win the favor of these forces.

Perceiving an apparent connection between

certain actions performed by the group and the

gradually replace the former mystical and

result it desires, the group repeats, refines and

socially efficacious concerns.

formalizes those actions into fixed ceremonies,

5. The word this in the passage refers to

1. The word championed in the passage is

the divorce of ritual performers from the