Module I: Reading and Writing

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Microplastics are a common pollutant in large masses of water like rivers. High concentrations and ______ among particles—variations in size, shape, and material—make it onerous to comprehensively classify the microplastics in a water sample, so Alvarez-Zeferino et al. are exploring a device to help quickly and accurately identify certain characteristics.
Which choice completes the text with the most logical and precise word or phrase?
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Mark for Review
incompatibilities
restraints
disruptions
inconsistencies
Researchers have long debated the origins of silver used in European coins from the 600s through the early 800s CE. Geochemical analysis by Kershaw et al. of 49 coins dating to 660–820 CE provides concrete evidence that reconciles two competing theories: early coins were made from Byzantine silver, and later coins used Frankish silver, findings that provide firm details in a previously ______ area of study.
Which choice completes the text with the most logical and precise word or phrase?
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Mark for Review
esoteric
speculative
authoritative
solitary
The following text is adapted from Alice Dunbar Nelson’s 1899 short story “The Fisherman of Pass Christian.” Pass Christian is a city in the US state of Mississippi.
The swift breezes on the beach at Pass Christian meet and conflict as though each strove for the mastery of the air. The land-breeze blows down through the pines, resinous, fragrant, cold, bringing breath-like memories of dim, dark woods shaded by myriad pine-needles. The breeze from the Gulf is warm and soft and languorous, blowing up from the south with its suggestion of tropical warmth.
As used in the text, what does the word “mastery” most nearly mean?
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Mark for Review
Domination
Familiarity
Skillfulness
Comprehension
In the search for new impact craters on Mars, the roles of seismic monitoring and orbital imaging as data sources are ______: when vibrations detected with seismic monitoring indicate roughly where an impact has occurred, researchers can use orbital images of that relatively limited area of the rocky surface to precisely locate a new crater.
Which choice completes the text with the most logical and precise word or phrase?
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Mark for Review
exhaustive
redundant
interchangeable
complementary
Understanding juvenile sea turtles’ migratory patterns is crucial for conservation efforts. While adult sea turtles are well studied, little is known about juveniles during their oceanic stage, when they spend most of their time in the open ocean. To learn about this stage, researchers tagged and released six juvenile green sea turtles (Chelonia mydas) into the eastern Caribbean Sea. Their findings revealed that the majority of the turtles passively drifted with ocean currents throughout the region. However, two individuals swam against the currents, possibly in search of foraging grounds off the coast of South America.
Which choice best states the main purpose of the text?
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Mark for Review
To summarize research on an understudied stage of sea turtle development
To suggest reasons why some juvenile sea turtles swim during migration
To compare the behavior of adult and juvenile sea turtles
To describe successful conservation efforts for sea turtles
In a section of a 1976 essay discussing cinema of the United States, James Baldwin observed that Lady Sings the Blues (1972), a biographical film about jazz singer Billie Holiday, can be said to reflect Holiday’s life and the experiences of Black Americans only “by courtesy.” According to Baldwin, the failure of this film to authentically represent its subject matter is indicative of a larger trend in films of the era: rather than leveraging the medium’s potential to confront difficult truths, filmmakers and studios often resorted to platitudes about contemporary US society.
Which choice best describes the function of the underlined portion in the text as a whole?
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Mark for Review
It expresses Baldwin’s initial reaction to a US film that the text suggests he would later reconsider.
It illustrates a view of Baldwin’s that the text explains departed substantially from the consensus view held by US film critics.
It characterizes the nature of the disconnect Baldwin identified between reality and how it was represented in US cinema.
It conveys Baldwin’s rejection of contemporary US cinema in favor of earlier films that are more authentic representations of society.
Notes from a Liar and Her Dog was Gennifer Choldenko’s debut novel. It was published in 2001. A debut novel is the first book that an author has published. Debut novels are especially interesting to literary critics (people whose job it is to evaluate books) and readers because these books offer a look at new voices in the literary world.
According to the text, what is someone who professionally evaluates books called?
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Mark for Review
An author
A book publisher
A bookseller
A literary critic
Founded in 1904, the Hispanic Society of America showcases the arts and cultures of Spanish-speaking and Portuguese-speaking regions around the world, including Latin America. It is located in New York City and has more than 18,000 objects in its museum collection. Since 2000, a number of other institutions devoted to Latino cultures have opened in the United States. A notable example is the National Hispanic Cultural Center in Albuquerque. It focuses on the literature, art, and cultures of Latin America as well as of Latino communities in the United States.
Which statement about the Hispanic Society of America is best supported by the text?
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Mark for Review
It is no longer located in New York City.
It was founded after 2000.
It is visited by more people than any other Latino cultural institution in the US.
Its collection includes over 18,000 objects.
The following text is adapted from Daniel Defoe’s 1704 nonfiction book The Storm.
If I judge right, ’tis the duty of an historian to set everything in its own light, and to convey matter of fact upon its legitimate authority, and no other: I mean thus, (for I would be as explicit as I can) that where a story is vouched to him with sufficient authority, he ought to give the world the special testimonial of its proper voucher, or else he is not just to the story; and where it comes without such sufficient authority, he ought to say so; otherwise he is not just to himself.
Which choice best states the main idea of the text?
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Mark for Review
Historians rarely have access to all the information relevant to a particular event, so no single work of history should be taken as definitive.
The only figures that a historian should quote are those who are widely viewed as credible.
Historians should clearly indicate the extent to which each of their sources is trustworthy.
Because historians cannot tell whose memories they should trust, they should avoid relying on eyewitness accounts of events.
The Underdogs is a 1915 novel by Mariano Azuela, originally written in Spanish. In the novel, Azuela depicts the character Camilla as experiencing a change in how she perceives her immediate surroundings:
Which quotation from a translation of The Underdogs most effectively illustrates the claim?
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Mark for Review
“Camilla’s tongue clove to her mouth, heavy and damp as a rag; she could not utter a word.”
“All nature was as she had found it before, evening upon evening; but in the stones and the dry weeds, amid the fragrance of the air and the light whir of falling leaves, Camilla sensed a new strangeness, a vast desolation in everything about her.”
“A dead leaf shook slowly loose from the crest of a tree swinging slowly on the wind, fell like a small dead butterfly at her feet. [Camilla] bent down and took it in her fingers.”
“[Camilla] closed her eyes fast to hold back the tears that welled up in them. Then, with the back of her hand, she wiped her wet cheeks, and just as she had done three days ago, fled with all the swiftness of a young deer.”
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