Module I: Reading and Writing

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Because it appears merely to reflect and rearrange the creative labor of human artists, art generated by artificial intelligence programs has been scorned by some as hackneyed. One can also argue, however, that all art is in some sense ____ because it draws on what has already been created by others for inspiration, making genuine artistic originality elusive.
Which choice completes the text with the most logical and precise word or phrase?
1
Mark for Review
obsolete
aesthetic
counterproductive
derivative
The swordfish is ectothermic, or cold-blooded, and the southern bluefin tuna is a regional endotherm, meaning that parts of its body are typically warmer than the surrounding water. The basking shark had been classified as a full ectotherm, a position that became ____ after researchers Haley R. Dolton and colleagues showed that the basking shark’s body temperature is consistently 1.0 to 1.5°C warmer than the water.
Which choice completes the text with the most logical and precise word or phrase?
2
Mark for Review
inconsolable
unanticipated
unequivocal
untenable
Alternative-history fiction is a subgenre of science fiction in which plots center on "what if?" questions. What if India had started the Industrial Revolution? What if Soviet cosmonauts had been first to land on the moon? Speculative counterfactuals like these can be great fodder for stories, but they're also commonly deployed by academic historians to better understand factors influencing historical events. Well-realized and coherent alternative-history stories can thus complement historians' speculations about the past.
Which choice best describes the function of the underlined portion in the text as a whole?
3
Mark for Review
It provides examples of the types of scenarios addressed in alternative-history fiction.
It illustrates how academic historians have influenced writers of alternative-history fiction.
It indicates specific ideas that were first raised by writers of alternative-history fiction and that subsequently inspired scholarship by academic historians.
It acknowledges counterfactual questions that academic historians have largely overlooked.
Seventeenth-century Flemish artist Clara Peeters played a crucial role in the history of still-life painting. At a time when historical paintings were the preferred genre—indeed, at a time when there wasn’t even a term for still-life painting in Peeters’s language—Peeters painted food, flowers, fish, and game. Her influence spread throughout Western Europe and she became so strongly associated with the genre that painters who took up similar subjects were sometimes described as belonging to the “circle of Peeters.”
Which choice best states the main idea of the text?
4
Mark for Review
Clara Peeters made significant contributions to multiple genres of painting.
Clara Peeters introduced the term “still-life painting” to Western Europe.
Some paintings attributed to Clara Peeters may have been painted by other artists in her circle.
Clara Peeters was an important figure in the development of still-life painting.
Several sociologists have observed that the word “culture,” though commonly used in academic literature, is an ultimately hazy concept—for example, Renato Mayntz has noted that “there is [still] no agreement on the meaning of this core term of sociological analysis.” Does the idea of culture encompass art, or customs, or both these things and others? For casual usage, such haziness is permissible—we know culture when we see it—but for researchers, a standardization of the term is called for if sociology is to truly progress.
Which choice best states the main idea of the text?
5
Mark for Review
Nonspecialists and specialists have different ideas of what the word “culture” means.
There is no widely agreed-upon definition of the word “culture,” though the field of sociology would benefit if there were.
In her research, Mayntz presented reasons why sociologists disagree on how to analyze culture.
Art and customs are key components of what nonspecialists refer to as “culture.”
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