Module I: Reading and Writing

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The following text is adapted from Jhumpa Lahiri’s 2003 novel The Namesake. Gogol is an elementary school student in Massachusetts.
In art class, his favorite hour of the week, he carves his name with paper clips into the bottoms of clay cups and bowls. He pastes uncooked pasta to cardboard, and leaves his signature in fan brush strokes below paintings.
As used in the text, what do the words “carves” and “leaves” both most nearly mean?
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Marks
Passes
Turns
Follows

The sloping tile roofs and picturesque façade of Mission San Carlos Borromeo de Carmelo in Carmel, California, are enduring symbols of the Spanish contribution to Californian architecture. Elements of this style have been reproduced throughout the state—the design of Santa Clara University in Santa Clara, for example, is considered to _______ the style of the Spanish missions.

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

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renovate
imitate
neglect
reject
In a garden, ______ the spread of unwelcome weeds such as nutgrass can be difficult because weeds usually spread easily and quickly become unmanageable, making it hard to remove them completely.
Which choice completes the text with the most logical and precise word or phrase?
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retrieving
saving
halting
pretending
Certain features are almost always included in the designs of mosques, like the minaret (or tower), which is considered to be a ______ of mosque architecture. Even mosques that exhibit elements of multiple architectural styles, such as the Shah Jahan Mosque, which incorporates elements from the Mughal, Safavid, and Timurid styles, will also include several of these standard features.
Which choice completes the text with the most logical and precise word or phrase?
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hallmark
reception
motivation
duplicate
Benjamin Prud’homme 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 specific 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 mixed pattern highlights a point raised by Dierick A. Green and Cassandra G. Estavour 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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It provides examples of how a phenomenon was studied by scientists in the field before Green and Estavour’s study.
It gives a basic description of a phenomenon that is central to the discussion that follows.
It clarifies a concept that the author implies was unclear in the studies mentioned in the text.
It introduces a method of scientific analysis that is discussed in greater detail later in the text.
In Ojibwe, an Indigenous language from the Great Lakes region of what are now the United States and Canada, wiisa means “far,” whereas wiisawa means “far apart.” This phenomenon, in which an element of a root word is repeated, sometimes with slight modification, within another word that’s related to the root word, is called reduplication. In this case, the element wiis in wiisawa gets repeated in wiisa. There are many examples of this type of reduplication in Ojibwe.
Which choice best describes the overall structure of the text?
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It describes the relationship between Ojibwe and several other languages, raises a question about that relationship, and then answers that question.
It identifies the most frequently occurring words in Ojibwe, explains why it is difficult to translate those words into English, and then provides examples of languages other than English into which those words can be translated.
It presents some specific words in Ojibwe, describes the general linguistic phenomenon exemplified by those words, and then states that this phenomenon occurs frequently in Ojibwe.
It explains the phenomenon of reduplication, discusses why reduplication has been controversial among scholars, and then argues that an analysis of Ojibwe could help resolve that controversy.

Text 1
Uisdean Nicholson and his team have discovered evidence in seismic data of a 40-kilometer-wide subsurface crater beneath nearly a kilometer of water off the coast of West Africa that is consistent with a 400-meter-wide asteroid striking the seafloor. This structure, which the team named Nadir, exhibits all the telltale signs of a high-impact crater: an elevated rim, a circular shape, a terraced floor, and a pronounced area of uplift at its center.
Text 2
Both carbonate dissolution and subsurface salt withdrawal can cause craterlike depressions without the need for a high-velocity impact. However, carbonate dissolution is very unlikely to have occurred in the vicinity of Nadir, although subsurface salt withdrawal could have plausibly occurred in this area and would result in a depression with a terraced floor or a circular shape, if it would not exhibit the area of central uplift seen at Nadir.
Which choice best describes a difference between the approach of Text 1 and the approach of Text 2?
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Text 1 dispassionately describes Nicholson and colleagues’ findings and conclusion, whereas Text 2 attempts to convey the researchers’ excitement on discovering Nadir.
Text 1 focuses on features Nadir lacks, whereas Text 2 indicates features it shares with other geological depressions.
Text 1 discusses a single plausible cause of Nadir, whereas Text 2 evaluates two possible causes.
Text 1 interprets the evidence supporting an asteroid impact as the cause of Nadir, whereas Text 2 argues against that explanation.
The following text is from Julia Alvarez’s 2000 novel In the Name of Salomé. The narrator and her sister, daughters of a famous poet, are being tutored by Alejandro Román.
Our tutor, Alejandro Román, brought his younger brother, Miguel, to class one day. By now I was eighteen and had learned everything Alejandro had to teach me, so I was glad for a new face. Miguel was an aspiring poet, and he had heard from his brother that the Trella girls were none other than the daughters of Nicolás Trella, and they were smart as clockwork. Miguel was hoping not only to meet us but to make the acquaintance of the poet himself at Mamá’s house.
Based on the text, why does Miguel accompany his brother to the sisters’ house one day?
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Miguel has learned all his brother can teach him and now desires to be taught by the sisters.
Miguel has not received formal instruction in poetry and wants to ask the sisters’ famous father to be his mentor.
Miguel wants to recite his poems to the sisters and inquire about their perspectives on his work.
Miguel anticipates having the opportunity to be introduced to both the sisters and their father.
Motivated to sell as many paintings as possible, Alfred Hair, an influential figure among the landscape artists known as the Florida Highwaymen, pioneered “fast painting,” which in part involved working across multiple canvases at once. That many of Hair’s acolytes, including Isaac Knight, imitated the technique accounts in part for the impressionistic qualities that are now synonymous with the group’s shared aesthetic. But not all Highwaymen fully embraced this approach: for instance, though Willie Reagan was also prolific, his paintings were executed with greater attention to detail.
What does the text most strongly suggest about paintings by Knight?
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Because of the manner in which they were created, they likely have visual qualities that are regarded as more typical of Florida Highwaymen paintings than the qualities in works by Reagan are.
Although it is evident that Knight adopted some of Hair’s preferred techniques, Knight’s works are less derivative of works by Hair than is typically acknowledged.
The lack of precision with which they were executed suggests that they are inferior to works by either Hair or Reagan.
Knight’s reliance on the technique of fast painting likely accounts for his works being more aesthetically interesting than works by Reagan are.
Vancouver has high pedestrian traffic, but other cities cannot increase their pedestrian traffic simply by replicating a single feature of Vancouver—e.g., its high number of pedestrian amenities—that is associated with walkability. As urbanist Mariela Alfonzo argues, many factors influence people’s decision-making about whether to walk: some studies have shown the importance of demographic characteristics, others have shown the importance of average commuting distance, and so on, and it is clear that none of these factors in isolation fully explains pedestrian habits in a given city.
Based on the text, the author would most likely agree with which statement about Vancouver’s high number of pedestrian amenities?
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It may increase walkability in Vancouver but is known to reduce walkability in other cities.
It is better understood as an effect of the high level of pedestrian traffic in Vancouver than as a cause of that pedestrian traffic.
It affects walking decisions in Vancouver less than demographic characteristics and average commuting distance do.
It should be understood as just one of several factors that influence pedestrian activity in Vancouver.
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