Module I: Reading and Writing

Building additional road capacity may seem like an obvious solution to traffic congestion, but numerous studies have cast doubt on the ______ of that approach. Not only does additional road capacity often fail to relieve congestion, but it can also make traffic worse by encouraging more people to drive.
Which choice completes the text with the most logical and precise word or phrase?

Mark for Review

A efficacy

B aesthetics

C originality

D popularity

Though many ______ studies of the effect of altitude on blood chemistry focus on people who live above sea level, researchers Suleiman A. Al-Sweedan and Moath Alhaj recently chose the novel path of focusing on people who live below sea level, in locations such as the California towns of Bombay Beach and Imperial.
Which choice completes the text with the most logical and precise word or phrase?

Mark for Review

A eccentric

B traditional

C meager

D random

Whatever the general attitude toward Spike Lee’s 1992 film Malcolm X and Carl Franklin’s 1995 film Devil in Blue Dress when they were initially released, both films now tend to be regarded quite ______. In 2018, for example, critics for the New York Times praised the former as “electrifying” and the latter as “picture-perfect.”
Which choice completes the text with the most logical and precise word or phrase?

Mark for Review

A strangely

B neutrally

C skeptically

D favorably

At the turn of the twentieth century, Black residents of Richmond, Virginia, had few formal options for banking and other financial services. To ______ this situation, Maggie Lena Walker chartered the St. Luke Penny Savings Bank in 1903. The bank went on to provide home loans and savings opportunities to thousands of Black families over the following decades.
Which choice completes the text with the most logical and precise word or phrase?

Mark for Review

A retain

B highlight

C prolong

D rectify

The Gleaners, painted in the realist style by Jean-François Millet, depicts peasants picking stray wheat from a field after the harvest. The realists’ emphasis on accurately portraying the experiences of average working people was largely a rejection of the romantic style evident in many paintings by Horace Vernet, which instead ______ their subjects’ beauty or heroism while hiding all imperfection.
Which choice completes the text with the most logical and precise word or phrase?

Mark for Review

A counteract

B obscure

C rectify

D accentuate

Module I: Reading and Writing

Check Your Work