1 1

Questions 1-11 are based on the following passage and 40 Clearly, expert SCRABBLE players are to some degree
supplementary material. “made.” But there is evidence that basic cognitive abilities play
a role, too. In a study recently published in Applied Cognitive
This passage is adapted from David Z. Hambrick, “Winning SCRABBLE Psychology, Michael Toma and his colleagues found that elite
and the Nature of Expertise,” (c)2015 Scientific American. SCRABBLE players outperformed college students from a
45 highly selective university on tests of two cognitive abilities:
SCRABBLE has been one of the most popular board games working memory and visuospatial reasoning. Working memory
in the world for decades. And, now, as an increasingly popular is the ability to hold in mind information while using it to solve
domain for scientific research on expertise, it is giving a problem, as when iterating through possible moves in a
Line psychologists a better understanding of the underpinnings of SCRABBLE game. Visuospatial reasoning is the ability to
5 complex skill and a clearer picture of the origins of greatness. 50 visualize things and to detect patterns, as when imagining how
The overarching goal of this research is to better understand the tiles on a SCRABBLE board would intersect after a certain
interplay between “software” and “hardware” aspects of the play. Both abilities are influenced by genetic factors.
cognitive system. Software factors include knowledge and Further evidence pointing to a role of these abilities in
skills that are acquired through experience, whereas hardware SCRABBLE expertise comes from a recent brain imaging
10 factors include genetically-influenced abilities and capacities. 55 study by Andrea Protzner and her colleagues at the University
SCRABBLE is ideal for research on how these factors interact of Calgary. Using functional magnetic resonance imaging
not only because it is relatively easy to find research (fMRI), these researchers recorded the brain activity of
participants from a wide range of skill, but because it can be SCRABBLE players and control subjects as they performed a
imported into the lab. task in which they were shown groups of letters and judged
15 The basic goal of SCRABBLE is to create intersecting 60 whether they formed words. (fMRI measures brain activity by
words by placing lettered tiles on a board containing a 15 x 15 detecting changes in blood flow within different regions of the
grid. Knowledge is, of course, critical for success in this task. brain.) The major finding of this study was that competitive
If you want to become a great SCRABBLE player, first and SCRABBLE players recruited brain regions associated with
foremost, you have to know a lot of words. You also need to be working memory and visual perception to perform this task to a
20 adept at identifying potential plays. Finally, you have to know 65 greater degree than the control subjects did.
SCRABBLE strategy—or what aficionados call “rack What might explain SCRABBLE experts’ superiority in
management”—such as how to keep a good mix of consonants working memory and visuospatial reasoning? For the same
and vowels. basic reason that basketball players tend to be tall, a likely
People aren’t born with this type of specialized knowledge. explanation is that people high in working memory and
25 Research indicates that we may come into the world equipped 70 visuospatial reasoning abilities are people who tend to get into,
with the building blocks for complex skills such as math, but and persist at, playing SCRABBLE: because it gives them an
certainly nothing as specific as knowledge of words in a advantage in the game. This explanation fits with what
particular language. Thus, experience is necessary to become behavioral geneticists call gene-environment correlation, which
an expert in SCRABBLE. And, in fact, SCRABBLE skill has is the idea that our genetic makeup influences our experiences.
30 been found to correlate positively with the amount of time 75 These findings add to an emerging understanding of
people spend engaging in SCRABBLE-related activities. In complex skill that may ultimately bring expertise within reach
one study, using official SCRABBLE rating as an objective of a larger number of people than is currently the case.
measure of skill, researchers found that groups of “elite” and
“average” SCRABBLE players differed in the amount of time
35 they had devoted to things like studying word lists, analyzing
previous SCRABBLE games, and anagramming—and not by a
little. Overall, the elite group had spent an average of over
5,000 hours on SCRABBLE study, compared to only about
1,300 hours for the average group.

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Survey results of members with National Scrabble Association 2
Ratings versus college students at a liberal arts college who
have played Scrabble at some point but have never competed. The main effect of the term “hardware” line 7 is to
suggest that the human brain.
A) is more like a computer than people realize.
B) has particular characteristics that cannot be
changed.
C) can be essentially reprogrammed through people’s
actions.
D) can be improved through the use of computers.

3
Evidence from the passage suggests that elite
SCRABBLE players would be most likely to
outperform non-elite SCRABBLE players in which of
the following?
A) Gaining admission to a selective university.
B) Playing a board game like chess.
C) Solving a mathematical equation.
D) Learning a foreign language.

4
Which choice provides the best evidence for the claim
that two people performing the same activity may be
using different areas of the brain?
A) lines 17-19 (“Knowledge ... words”)
B) lines 31-37 (“In one ... little”)
C) lines 60-62 (“fMRl ... brain”)
1
D) lines 62-65 (“The major ... did”)
The passage makes the most extensive use of which
kind of evidence?
A) expert testimony. 5
B) scientific studies. The author implies that people who experience great
success in a given activity are often born with
C) secondary sources.
A) advantages uniquely suited to that activity.
D) statistical analysis.
B) a drive to succeed in any activity.
C) parents who value success in that activity.
D) a desire to participate in many activities.

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6 10
Which choice provides the best evidence for the Based on the passage and the chart, college students
answer to the previous question? playing SCRABBLE are more likely than elite players
to
A) lines 31-37 (“Thus ... activities”)
A) make an effort to visualize the board from a
B) lines 37-39 (“Overall ... group”)
different perspective, because they are less able to
C) lines 49-52 (“Visuospatial ... play”) rely on visuospatial reasoning.
D) lines 67-72 (“For ... game”) B) have difficulty remembering which letters have
been played, because they use their working
memory less.
7 C) forget to study, because they are less invested in
As used in line 32, “objective” most nearly means winning any particular game.
A) perceptible. D) spend time learning words, because they have less
inherent talent than elite players.
B) sensory.
C) intentional.
D) unbiased. 11
According to the chart, elite SCRABBLE players are
most likely to do which of the following?
8
A) Study the definitions of words.
The main purpose of paragraph 3 is to
B) Keep track of letters played.
A) trace the non-cognitive factors associated with
C) Memorize point values.
SCRABBLE expertise.
D) Memorize words.
B) show that average SCRABBLE players lack the
genetic advantages of elite players.
C) examine the value of childhood training in
predicting SCRABBLE success.
D) demonstrate that hard work is all it takes to
become an elite SCRABBLE player.

9
According to the chart, the question to which the
smallest percentage of college students answered “yes”
mainly tested the students’
A) vocabulary knowledge.
B) critical thinking.
C) working memory.
D) visuospatial reasoning.

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Questions 1-11 are based on the following passage. effect of language affiliation on the distribution of moccasin
decorations was detected. This indicates that the representation
This passage is excerpted from Stephen J. Lycett, “Dynamics of of moccasin decoration types among groups is, in this case,
Cultural Transmission in Native Americans of the High Great Plains,” 45 most strongly determined by whether or not that trait is present
©2014 by Stephen J. Lycett. in another, geographically proximate, tribe. In other words,
selection biases have not disrupted the distribution of these
As case studies go, understanding the distribution of cultural decorations to the extent that they deviate significantly from a
elements in Native American communities during the historical pattern predictable on the basis of the geographic relationships
period of the Great Plains would seem a most challenging one. 50 between tribes alone. These results would seem to reaffirm the
Line Famously, there is a mixture of powerful internal and external role of intergroup relations in creating a pattern of shared
5 factors, creating -- for a relatively brief period in time -- a cultural similarity over the region during the 19th century,
seemingly distinctive set of shared elements from a which many have previously discussed.
linguistically diverse set of peoples. This is known across the Behavioral variation between tribes in terms of their
world as the “Great Plains culture.” [In our study], quantitative 55 practice of the religious ceremony of the Sun Dance also
analyses show how different processes operated on two sets of indicated a statistical relationship with geography, again
10 cultural traits among nine High Plains groups. Moccasin reiterating the role of inter-tribe transmission in creating the
decorations exhibit a pattern consistent with geographically- phenomenon historically labeled as the “Great Plains culture.”
mediated between-group interaction. However, group However, patterns of inter-tribe variation in Sun Dance
variations in the religious ceremony of the Sun Dance also 60 elements also exhibited a statistically significant relationship
reveal evidence of purifying cultural selection associated with with linguistic affinities between different tribes. Ordinarily,
15 historical biases, dividing down ancient linguistic lines. The this pattern might simply be attributed to the fact that tribes
latter shows that while the conglomeration of “Plains culture” with more mutually comprehensible languages were able to
may have been a product of merging new ideas with old, more effectively transmit the behavioral variants among
combined with cultural interchange between groups, the details 65 themselves. Here, however, language patterns were found not
of what was accepted, rejected or elaborated in each case to correlate with geographic patterns and, moreover, the
20 reflected pre-existing ideological biases. Although culture may statistical relationship between Sun Dance patterning and
sometimes be a “melting pot,” the analyses show that even in linguistic affiliation was found to still hold even when
highly fluid situations, cultural mosaics may be indirectly geography was controlled for. The relationship between Sun
shaped by historical factors that are not always obvious. . . . 70 Dance variations and language patterns is, therefore, in this
“Culture” is the conglomeration of information, knowledge, instance puzzling.
25 ideas, and beliefs, shared by communities and transmitted by
social interaction. This shared property characterizes all human
societies. Communities that came to occupy the High Great
Plains during the 19th century exemplify the manner in which The Similarity of Sun Dances Among Four Great Plains Tribes
humans can take existing ideas, elaborate them, combine them
Arapho Assiniboine Gros Ventre Blackfoot
30 with new ones, pass them successfully between groups and
create novel, distinct patterns, visible over temporal and spatial Arapho 100% 30% 50% 41%
scales. Attempting to examine the role of specific factors in Assiniboine 30% 100% 32% 32%
creating cultural patterning under such historically-contingent,
Gros Ventre 51% 32% 100% 48%
transient, and dynamic conditions, however, presents a
35 challenge. Blackfoot 41% 32% 48% 100%
Here, analyses have shown the presence of distinct
processes operating and ultimately influencing the The table demonstrates the degree of similarity (with a maximum similarity of
100% when a group is compared to itself ) between any given pairing among
representation of cultural traits in different tribes. Patterns of the four tribes.
similarity and difference in moccasin designs among different
40 tribes show a statistically significant relationship with the
model of geographic relationships between tribes. No statistical

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1 4
The author makes the most extensive use of which The main purpose of the author’s discussion of
kind of evidence? cultural patterning in paragraph two is to
A) Personal recollections A) refute the findings of another study.
B) Statistics B) contest an accepted theory.
C) Quantitative analysis C) set forth the challenges of the study.
D) Expert testimony D) present a controversial claim.

2 5
As used in line 12, “mediated” most nearly means What does the author imply about similarities in
moccasin design among Great Plains tribes in the 19th
A) resolved. century?
B) influenced. A) The moccasin designs are as similar as the tribes’
C) intervened. Sun Dances.
D) reconciled. B) Similar languages played a small but vital role in
determining the similarity of the tribes’ moccasin
designs.
3 C) The similarities in moccasin design can be
The word “mosaic” (line 22) primarily serves to explained in the context of the tribes’ relative
geographies.
A) provide an image to contrast with a commonly-
used metaphor. D) The Great Plains tribes did not have common
cultural elements until after the 19th century.
B) creatively illustrate the ways in which Great Plains
tribes have shared a common culture.
C) characterize the artistic traditions shared by Great 6
Plains tribes.
Which choice provides the best evidence for the
D) sarcastically comment on the Great Plains tribes’ answer to the previous question?
history of conflict.
A) lines 4-7 (“Famously ... peoples”)
B) lines 38-41 (“Patterns ... tribes”)
C) lines 41-43 (“No ... detected”)
D) lines 59-61 (“However ... tribes”)

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7 10
It can be reasonably inferred that the relationships According to the passage, the similarities between the
among the Sun Dances of the Great Plains tribes is tribes’ Sun Dances as shown in the chart can be best
puzzling because attributed to
A) it would be logical for language and geography to A) the close geographical locations that the tribes
correlate, but they do not. shared.
B) the tribes with similar moccasin designs should B) similarities in the languages from which their
have similar Sun Dances, but they do not. present-day languages derived.
C) language patterns do not normally have such a C) patterns of similarity in design preferences among
strong influence on cultural developments. different tribes.
D) geography is the only logical explanation for such D) selection biases that different tribes have
strong cultural similarities. exhibited.

8 11
Which choice provides the best evidence for the The difference between the tribes with the greatest
answer to the previous question? level of similarity and the tribes with the least level of
similarity, as depicted in the chart, is approximately
A) lines 12-15 (“However ... lines”)
A) 30%.
B) lines 46-50 (“In other ... alone”)
B) 20%.
C) lines 54-58 (“Behavioral ... culture”)
C) 40%.
D) lines 65-69 (“Here ... for”)
D) 50%.

9
According to the table, which two tribes have the
most similar Sun Dances, discounting each tribe’s
comparison to itself?
A) The Gros Ventre and Ara pho tribes
B) The Blackfoot and Gros Ventre tribes
C) The Arapho and Blackfoot tribes
D) The Assiniboine and Gros Ventre tribes

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