Module I: Reading and Writing

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The following text is adapted from Jhumpa Lahiri's 2003 novel The Namesake. Ashima and her husband, Ashoke, are traveling from the United States to India.
Ashoke puts his hand over hers as the plane begins to gather speed. And then Boston tilts away and they ascend effortlessly over a blackened Atlantic.
As used in the text, what does the word 'gather' most nearly mean?
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Gain
Doubt
Welcome
Force
The _____ blank Wendy Wan-Long Shang's book The Great Wall of Lucy Wu has been very positive. Many reviewers have praised the book, and it won the Asian/Pacific American Award for Literature.
Which choice completes the text with the most logical and precise word or phrase?
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response to
neglect of
confusion about
inspiration for
Microbiologist Radamés Cordero and team investigated surface temperatures of a variety of fungi, including Amanita muscaria and a species from the genus Cantharellus, in a study _____ blank a previous observation: Cordero had taken thermal images of various wild mushrooms while hiking and found that the mushrooms all appeared to be colder than the surrounding environment, raising questions about thermoregulation in fungi.
Which choice completes the text with the most logical and precise word or phrase?
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Mark for Review
released in
acknowledged in
excluded by
prompted by
Research on Chaenocephalus aceratus and other icefishes of the Teleostei class has shown that their hearts are pale due to low levels of myoglobin expression, which was once thought to be related to their polar habitats. Recently, researchers have found that some tropical teleost species (such as Sphaeramia nematoptera) also have pale hearts, raising the possibility that myoglobin deficiency in teleosts could be _____ blank habitat.
Which choice completes the text with the most logical and precise word or phrase?
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Mark for Review
irrespective of
mediated by
predictive of
obscured by
In 2013 Bridie J.M. Allan and colleagues published a study concluding that ocean acidification has a strong effect on the behavior of Pomacentrus amboinensis, a species of fish. However, Allan and colleagues' study relied on a mean sample size of only about 18 fish. In a 2022 review of various scientists' conclusions about the impacts of ocean acidification on fish behavior, Josefin Sundin and colleagues caution that relying on such a relatively small sample size can increase the potential for biased analysis. Such analysis, in turn, can contribute to reports of exaggerated effects.
Which choice best describes the function of the underlined sentence in the text as a whole?
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Mark for Review
It introduces a detail about Allan and colleagues' study that is addressed in the sentences that follow.
It offers an alternative explanation for the behavior of Pomacentrus amboinensis that is described in the previous sentence.
It emphasizes the threat of ocean acidification to Pomacentrus amboinensis that is mentioned in the previous sentence.
It states the conclusion reached by Allan and colleagues that is elaborated on in the sentences that follow.
Editor Jared Shurin's 2023 anthology The Big Book of Cyberpunk contains 108 stories, an enormous number when compared to the 1986 cyberpunk anthology Mirrorshades, which has only twelve. Encompassing both early (e.g., Fritz Leiber's 1950 story "Coming Attraction") and more recent (e.g., Erica Satifka's 2021 story "Act of Providence") contributions, the broad chronological scope of Shurin's volume may make it seem more comprehensive than Mirrorshades, but Mirrorshades's focus is more carefully considered, rendering it the more authoritative anthology of this science fiction subgenre.
Which choice best describes the function of the underlined portion in the text as a whole?
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Mark for Review
It supports the assertion that Leiber and Satifka should be considered essential figures in the cyberpunk movement.
It indicates a sensible perception of a cyberpunk anthology that can nonetheless be disputed for a good reason.
It suggests that, because they are relatively up to date, more recently published collections of cyberpunk stories are likely to be more inclusive than earlier anthologies.
It helps explain why two compilers of anthologies have different ideas regarding which short stories should be labeled as "cyberpunk."
Wenheng Zhang and colleagues have explored how convergent evolution—a phenomenon that occurs when the same trait evolves independently in two reproductively separate lineages—can result from a genetic mechanism shared by both lineages. Meanwhile, Patricia J. Wittkopp and colleagues have investigated how convergence occurs through different genetic mechanisms, but the relative prevalence of convergence through shared and different genetic processes is still poorly understood. This motivated biologists Delbert A. Green II and Cassandra G. Extavour to evaluate both types of convergence in a single study for their 2012 paper.
Which choice best states the function of the underlined portion in the text as a whole?
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Mark for Review
It clarifies a concept that the author implies was unclear in the studies mentioned in the text.
It provides examples of how a phenomenon was studied by scientists in the field before Green and Extavour's study.
It introduces a method of scientific analysis that is discussed in greater detail later in the text.
It gives a basic description of a phenomenon that is central to the discussion that follows.
Text 1:
As part of a study of ungulates (hoofed mammals) native to the Yellowstone River basin, fresh dung samples from identified individuals were collected in the Confederated Salish and Kootenai Tribes Bison Range of Montana. Based on steroidal analysis, on average the bison and elk samples had similar levels of beta-sitosterol and stigmastanol, which distinguished these species' profiles from that of moose.
Text 2:
Although fecal-steroidal profile alone is not sufficient to distinguish between samples from bison and those from elk, the relative levels of zoostanols (steroids with animal origins), such as coprostanol and 24-ethyl-coprostanol, in sediments at Buffalo Ford Lake in Yellowstone National Park show that bison, elk, or both were the predominant ungulates in the lake's watershed for all strata of sediment examined, going as far back as 2,300 years.
Which conclusion about steroid profiles is supported by information in both Text 1 and Text 2?
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Mark for Review
The profiles for bison and elk contain similar concentrations of various steroids.
Each of the ungulate species in the Buffalo Ford Lake watershed has a distinctive and unique steroidal profile.
Some steroids in the bison and elk profiles are more likely than others to be preserved for long time spans.
The profiles of ungulates in and around the Yellowstone basin show that bison and elk have historically been more prevalent than moose in the area.
Did you know that the Warwick is just one of around three million known shipwrecks spread across the world's oceans? Leila Hamdan and team wanted to find out how wooden shipwrecks affect the distribution of microbes on the seafloor. The researchers studied two wooden shipwrecks in the Gulf of Mexico. They placed pieces of pine and oak between 0 and 200 meters away from each shipwreck to collect samples of microbes. They found that pine and oak pieces placed about 125 meters from the shipwrecks had the most species of microbes on them.
According to the text, at what approximate distance from the studied shipwrecks did the researchers observe the most species of microbes on the pine and oak pieces?
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Mark for Review
200 meters
0 meters
30 meters
125 meters
In the early 1970s, Black journalists across the United States recognized the need for an organization that could support and advocate for greater diversity in the media. In 1975, a group of forty-four journalists gathered in Washington, D.C., to establish what became known as the National Association of Black Journalists (NABJ). The founders aimed to create a professional network that would promote fair representation of African Americans in newsrooms and media coverage. Since its founding, the NABJ has grown into one of the largest organizations of journalists of color in the world.
According to the text, where was the National Association of Black Journalists founded?
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Philadelphia
Detroit
Washington, DC
San Diego
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