The dates that archaeologists assign to most of the colossal sculptures of human heads produced by the Olmec civilization of Mesoamerica are necessarily _____. The majority of the sculptures have been moved from their original context, making precise dating impossible.

Which choice completes the text with the most logical and precise word or phrase?

Although oil shocks-such as the 10% rise in oil prices in November 1970-can strongly affect individual consumers, Gbadebo Oladosu and colleagues have shown that at the level of national economies, their effects are often quite______blank. The effect of recent oil shocks on the gross domestic product of Germany, for example, was only slightly greater than zero.

Which choice completes the text with the most logical and precise word or phrase?

_____ traditional descriptions of pollination syndromes (suites of floral traits, such as pistil length and flower size, hypothesized to have independently evolved as a result of selection pressure exerted by pollinators) and recent empirical observations of floral-trait combinations have led some ecologists to express reservations about the utility of those descriptions.

Which choice completes the text with the most logical and precise word or phrase?

Scientists discovered a 390-million-year-old fossilized forest of Calamophyton trees in modern-day England. The scientists believe the emergence of these Calamophyton forests changed the land significantly. For example, the tree roots would have greatly reduced soil erosion, and the accumulated twigs the trees shed likely created new habitats for animal life.

Which choice best describes the function of the underlined sentence in the text as a whole?

The following text is from Louise Erdrich’s 1986 novel The Beet Queen. The narrator discusses her relationship with her young niece, Dot. Celestine, the narrator’s sister-in-law, is Dot’s mother.

Dot and I had a mental connection, I was sure of it. I understood things about the baby that her mother could not accept.
For instance, she was never meant to be a baby.
Dot was as impatient with babyhood as I. She tried at once to grow out of it. Celestine never saw that, because she, and only she, took pleasure in Dot’s helpless softness. Only Celestine was saddened by her daughter’s fierce progress.
Day by day, Dot grew stronger. In her shopping-cart stroller she exercised to exhaustion, bouncing for hours to develop her leg muscles.

Which choice best describes the main purpose of the text?

Adelaide is one of many cities that have installed pontoons or other hardening structures to protect their shorelines against coastal hazards. To assess how birds respond to shoreline hardening and other landscape alterations, Diann Prosser et al. used a tool known as the Index of Waterbird Community Integrity to survey bird communities consisting of sixty-four species, including the brown pelican and the red knot, in the Chesapeake Bay on the US East Coast. The researchers concluded that shoreline hardening more negatively affects birds than does land development for uses such as housing.

Which choice best describes the overall structure of the text?

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?

Women like Grace Murray Hopper made important early contributions to the history of US cryptology, a field concerned with secure data communication and storage. Hopper was a US naval admiral and computer scientist who coined the term “debugging” and invented the first compiler program for translating computer code. In this way, Hopper and others like her helped make it possible for more women—such as Maureen Baginski, who currently works in intelligence and supports the FBI—to enter the field of cryptology.

Which choice best states the main idea of the text?

Researchers who examined data from radio-tagged southern sea otters (Enhydra lutris nereis) identified fitness benefits gained by otters that used tools: By using fixed stones as anvils, tool-using otters gained access to high- quality, hard-shelled prey (e.g., mussels and clams) that they could usually not access through biting alone. Non-tool- using otters foraged abundant, energy-poor, easily extractable prey instead (e.g., snails). Even when easily processed prey were depleted, tool-using otters that processed mussels and clams were thus able to obtain their needed energy resources and to do so without incurring tooth damage.

What does the text most strongly suggest about southern sea otters in environments where snails, mussels, and clams are present?

Over the course of the 1900s, more and more Native Hawaiians spoke English instead of the Hawaiian language. To preserve their language, Native Hawaiian teachers founded the ‘Aha Pūnana Leo preschool in 1984. They spoke Hawaiian while teaching, and their Native Hawaiian students were soon able to understand and speak it themselves. The school was a huge success. Eventually it opened locations around Hawai‘i and started teaching Hawaiian to elementary and high school students too. Thanks to Aha Pūnana Leo, the number of young people who speak the language has increased.

Which statement, if true, would most directly support the underlined claim?