Sporting Futures USA | SAT Prep | Critical Reading 1.1

Please Read the Passage below and answer the Question at the bottom - Topic: Short Single Passage 1 Since the dawn of fashion in the West some seven 2 hundred years ago, probably no other article of clothing 3 has in the course of its evolution more fully served as a 4 vehicle for the expression of ambivalences and 5 ambiguities than blue jeans. Some of the social history 6 supporting this statement is by now generally well 7 known. First fashioned in the mid-nineteenth-century 8 American West by Morris Levi Strauss, a Bavarian 9 Jewish peddler newly arrived in San Francisco, the 10 trousers, then as now, were made from a sturdy, 11 indigo-based cotton cloth said to have originated in 12 Nimes, France. A garment similar to that manufactured 13 by Levi Strauss for gold-miners and outdoor laborers 14 is said to have been worn earlier in France by sailors 15 and dockworkers from Genoa, Italy, who were referred 16 to as "genes;" hence the term "jeans." The distinctive 17 copper riveting at the pants pockets and other stress 18 points was the invention of Jacob Davis, a tailor from 19 Carson City, Nevada, who joined the Levi Strauss firm 20 in 1873, some twenty years after the garment's intro- 21 duction. Years later the working man's garment 22 attained the prominence and near-universal recogni- 23 tion it possesses today. For it was not until the late 24 1960s that blue jeans, after several failed moves in 25 previous decades into a broader mass market, strik- 26 ingly crossed over nearly all class, gender, age, 27 regional, national, and ideological lines to become the 28 universally worn and widely accepted item of apparel 29 they are today. And since the crossover, enthusiasm 30 for them has by no means been confined to North 31 America and Western Europe. In former Soviet bloc 32 countries and much of the Third World, too, where they 33 have generally been in short supply, they remain highly 34 sought after and hotly bargained over. 35 A critical feature of this cultural breakthrough is, of 36 course, blue jeans' identity change from a garment 37 associated exclusively with work (and hard work, at 38 that) to one invested with many of the symbolic 39 attributes of leisure: ease, comfort, casualness, 40 sociability, and the outdoors. Or, as the costume 41 historians Jasper and Roach-Higgins (1987) might put 42 it, the garment underwent a process of cultural 43 authentication that led to its acquisition of meanings 44 quite different from those with which it began. In 45 bridging the work/leisure divide when they did, jeans 46 tapped into the new, consumer-goods-oriented, 47 postindustrial affluence of the West on a massive 48 scale. Soon thereafter jeans penetrated those many 49 other parts of the world that emulate the West. Question: Which of the following would provide the most fitting subject for a subsequent paragraph to the passage?

Please Read the Passage below and answer the Question at the bottom - Topic: Short Single Passage 1 Since the dawn of fashion in the West some seven 2 hundred years ago, probably no other article of clothing 3 has in the course of its evolution more fully served as a 4 vehicle for the expression of ambivalences and 5 ambiguities than blue jeans. Some of the social history 6 supporting this statement is by now generally well 7 known. First fashioned in the mid-nineteenth-century 8 American West by Morris Levi Strauss, a Bavarian 9 Jewish peddler newly arrived in San Francisco, the 10 trousers, then as now, were made from a sturdy, 11 indigo-based cotton cloth said to have originated in 12 Nimes, France. A garment similar to that manufactured 13 by Levi Strauss for gold-miners and outdoor laborers 14 is said to have been worn earlier in France by sailors 15 and dockworkers from Genoa, Italy, who were referred 16 to as "genes;" hence the term "jeans." The distinctive 17 copper riveting at the pants pockets and other stress 18 points was the invention of Jacob Davis, a tailor from 19 Carson City, Nevada, who joined the Levi Strauss firm 20 in 1873, some twenty years after the garment's intro- 21 duction. Years later the working man's garment 22 attained the prominence and near-universal recogni- 23 tion it possesses today. For it was not until the late 24 1960s that blue jeans, after several failed moves in 25 previous decades into a broader mass market, strik- 26 ingly crossed over nearly all class, gender, age, 27 regional, national, and ideological lines to become the 28 universally worn and widely accepted item of apparel 29 they are today. And since the crossover, enthusiasm 30 for them has by no means been confined to North 31 America and Western Europe. In former Soviet bloc 32 countries and much of the Third World, too, where they 33 have generally been in short supply, they remain highly 34 sought after and hotly bargained over. 35 A critical feature of this cultural breakthrough is, of 36 course, blue jeans' identity change from a garment 37 associated exclusively with work (and hard work, at 38 that) to one invested with many of the symbolic 39 attributes of leisure: ease, comfort, casualness, 40 sociability, and the outdoors. Or, as the costume 41 historians Jasper and Roach-Higgins (1987) might put 42 it, the garment underwent a process of cultural 43 authentication that led to its acquisition of meanings 44 quite different from those with which it began. In 45 bridging the work/leisure divide when they did, jeans 46 tapped into the new, consumer-goods-oriented, 47 postindustrial affluence of the West on a massive 48 scale. Soon thereafter jeans penetrated those many 49 other parts of the world that emulate the West. Question: Which statement, if true, would best support the author's argument in lines 23-29?

Please Read the Passage below and answer the Question at the bottom - Topic: Long Single Passage 1 Introversion is a personality attitude identified by the 2 Swiss psychologist Carl G. Jung. For people with a 3 preference for introversion, internal processing of an 4 experience is more important than the experience 5 itself; hence, introverts seek a lot of time alone to do 6 that processing. They can process in the presence of 7 others, but they must be detached and quiet so their 8 attention can be turned inward. A crucial thing to 9 understand about a relationship with an introvert 10 is not to take his or her need for "cave time" personally. 11 It is like a need for food or sleep. 12 Extroversion is also a personality attitude identified 13 by Carl Jung. Extroverts are talkative, enthusiastic, 14 sociable, and confident; they often have many friends. 15 They are very interested in the external world and want 16 to spend lots of their energy exploring it. They tend 17 to act first and think later, unlike introverts, who usually 18 do the opposite. They recharge by getting out of the 19 house, going out and being active. 20 Since we all have both an introvert and an extrovert 21 inside of us, we may be presented with only the extro- 22 verted side of someone when we first meet him or 23 her. Once you get to know an introvert better, he or she 24 may seem like a different person. The primary way to 25 identify a preference for introversion is to look at where 26 the person goes to recharge. If the person seeks soli- 27 tude, he or she is probably an introvert. (Note that extro- 28 verts have an introverted side that needs some quiet 29 time too; it's just not their primary orientation.) 30 Probably seventy-five percent of Americans are 31 extroverts, as you might guess from even a cursory 32 inspection of our advertising, news, and other 33 aspects of our culture. Not all societies are so 34 biased toward extroversion. American children 35 with a propensity for introversion may not be allowed 36 to indulge their preference; instead, they may be 37 encouraged to put their books down and go outside, 38 told by their parents to "get out there," "get involved," 39 and "just do it." 40 Different eras and occasions of our life require us 41 to be more extroverted than others. For example, 42 adolescents, who are preparing to leave home 43 and meet new people, tend to be extroverts. However, 44 if an adolescent extrovert has not yet discovered 45 his or her introverted self, he or she will probably 46 find a healthy need for more downtime as he or she 47 ages. Jung believed that the psyche seeks balance. A 48 Jungian scholar writes, "Until we become thoroughly 49 aware of the inadequacy of our extroverted state and of 50 its insufficiency in regard to our deeper spiritual needs, 51 we shall not achieve even a measure of individuation, 52 through which a wider and more mature personality 53 emerges." Question: The best meaning of the word "cursory" (line 31) is ________.

Please Read the Passages below and answer the Question at the bottom. Topic: Short Paired Passages. PASSAGE 1 - 1 When Americans are asked to rank professions in 2 terms of honesty and ethics, insurance agents 3 routinely end up near the bottom of the list-some- 4 where between politicians and car salesmen. 5 Generally, insurers are seen as clever hucksters who 6 prey on insecurity and ignorance to sell people what 7 they don't need at prices they shouldn't have to pay. 8 So you might have thought that the industry's image 9 couldn't get much worse. Then Eliot Spitzer, the New 10 York State attorney general, filed a lawsuit against 11 the giant insurance broker Marsh & McLennan, 12 describing instances of bribery, price-fixing, and all- 13 around corruption. The suit forced the resignation, 14 last week, of Jeffrey Greenberg, Marsh's C.E.O., and, 15 by implicating Marsh's collaborators and rivals, made 16 the insurance game appear even seamier than before. PASSAGE 2 - 17 Insurance agents do not have a monopoly on getting 18 customers into fraudulent investments. But right now 19 a confluence of factors has made insurance agents 20 catalysts for peddling them. They have a clientele of 21 willing, sometimes desperate buyers, since interest 22 rates on safe, fixed-income investments have 23 declined practically to zero. Many people, particularly 24 the elderly, are now looking for income to replace 25 what they've lost. Con artists with investments to sell 26 have capitalized on insurance agents' all-too-human 27 hunger for extra earnings, convincing many of them 28 to defraud their clients by promising to share profits. 29 Con artists focus on insurance agents because the 30 agents, having earned the trust of their customers, 31 have intimate knowledge of their clients' finances; 32 however, by recommending investments that they 33 know to be swindles, the insurance agents prove 34 themselves to be undeserving of that trust. Question: The authors of Passage 1 and Passage 2 would most likely agree on which of the following statements?

Please Read the Passages below and answer the Question at the bottom. Topic: Long Single Passage. 1 Weather forecasts specific to wild land fire have been 2 provided since as early as 1916, when the U.S. Weath- 3 er Bureau was still a part of the U.S. Department of 4 Agriculture. In the last decade, though, the fire weather 5 program has been a repeated target of budget cuts. 6 An agreement between the National Weather Service 7 (NWS) and federal land management agencies speci- 8 fies that meteorological support will be provided for 9 wild land fire. The NWS, however, is struggling through 10 a nationwide Modernization and Associated 11 Restructuring (MAR), and the fire community is more 12 than a little worried about the degradation of services 13 that may result. 14 One of the key pieces of MAR is the phasing out of 15 meteorologists who specialize in fire weather. These 16 people are being moved, transferred, re-assigned, or 17 otherwise attritioned out of fire weather forecasting. 18 The NWS contends that its core staff of generalists can 19 do a better job than the fire weather specialists did, 20 with the help of new forecast technology. This new- 21 and-improved technology, however, has proved to be 22 less helpful than expected; it wasn't ready on time and 23 its quality is questionable. In addition, MAR will close 24 the former specialized fire weather offices; the fire 25 meteorologists, or "fire mets," will be absorbed into the 26 staffs of the new modernized offices, where they will 27 take on additional forecast duties including aviation 28 meteorology, hydrology, marine forecasting, and 29 severe weather warnings. MAR's planned transition, 30 though, has been stalling, partly because of problems 31 with the technology, partly because of budget short- 32 falls, and partly because of objections from the wild 33 land fire community. 34 The fire agencies -- the U.S. Forest Service, Bureau of 35 Land Management, National Park Service, U.S. Fish & 36 Wildlife Service, and Bureau of Indian Affairs -- see 37 clearly the connection between fire weather and safety. 38 But the NWS has not acknowledged the value of or the 39 need for dedicated fire weather specialists who are 40 familiar with local conditions and weather patterns, 41 and their relevance to fire behavior. The NWS does not 42 seem to understand the connection between these 43 meteorologists and safety -- in fact, the NWS does a 44 dismal job of tracking statistics on the injuries, 45 fatalities, and property damage caused by fire weather. 46 Private for-profit weather companies lobbied Congress 47 to transfer weather services away from government 48 agencies without any understanding of the program- 49 matic structure which is needed in order to maintain 50 timely and accurate fire weather forecasts, and Con- 51 gress has, in turn, slashed funding for the programs. 52 The cumulative effect of these factors has created an 53 explosive situation that has fire agencies worried, and 54 NWS management scrambling for a solution. Question: According to the passage, how is MAR creating problems for fire forecasting?

Topic: Sentence Completion, Vocabulary-in-Context Question: The ________ cream should help to ________ the pain caused by your dry skin. Select the words that best complete the sentence.

Read the Passage Below and Answer the Question at the Bottom. Topic: Short Single Passage 1 Photographer Lori Hyde defended criticism that said 2 her latest work is too pedestrian. "My vision for this 3 project was to capture images of everyday people in 4 everyday situations. I want my art to be very 5 accessible," stated Hyde. She went on to say, "I don't 6 create art by committee. And I will not ignore the gray 7 area of our lives. I believe artistic expression is alive 8 everywhere." Still, some of Hyde's longtime, ardent 9 supporters acquiesce that her technique is uninspired. Question: The word "acquiesce" in line 9 best means which of the following?

Read the Passage Below and Answer the Question at the Bottom. Topic: Long Single Passage 1 In the retrospective "Drawn from Life" at the NAB 2 Gallery, Marion Kryczka, Tom Robinson, and Bob Horn 3 showcase their drawings, paintings, and mixed media, 4 reflecting their life-long fascination with the figure as 5 conceptual art. The artists pay homage to the NAB 6 tradition of "holding figure drawing workshops for art- 7 ists to hone their perception and to use drawing as a 8 starting point as well as a point of departure to see 9 what is possible." And what is remarkable about this 10 show is not just the focus on drawing and the use of 11 traditional materials, but also the depiction of a 12 "Baroque style" portraying drama, vitality, and move- 13 ment--filtered through a modern sensibility. This show 14 is an allegory of art as poetry, transformation, and 15 social commentary. 16 Marion Kryczka's series begins with "Emperor of Ice- 17 Cream," a study in pastel on paper and another in oil 18 on canvas. Kryczka believes that "painting is like poetry 19 because both are filled with symbolism and both tell a 20 story." His series is named after the Wallace Stevens 21 poem "The Emperor of Ice-Cream," which has been 22 interpreted by some as celebrating the triumph of life's 23 pleasures and sensualities over the absoluteness of 24 death. Stevens re-emphasizes in the poem's last line 25 that "the only emperor is the emperor of ice-cream," 26 perhaps meaning that what matters most is enjoying 27 life with all one's senses fully engaged, as they are 28 when eating ice-cream. Kryczka begins his story with a 29 chair in the foreground of a dimly-lit sitting room, beck- 30 oning the viewer to come into his world with a front row 31 seat. In the background, we see two women in profile, 32 one sitting and the other standing, both looking intently 33 at what appears to be a painting on the wall. 34 There is a bowl of ice-cream and a sheaf of wrapped 35 flowers on a long table, dividing the sitting room and 36 the doorway to the kitchen, which is bathed in natural 37 light. We are engaged in a painting that resembles the 38 17th-century Dutch master Pieter de Hooch with the il- 39 lusion of real perspective, portrayal of natural light, and 40 subtle use of color and tone. But, at the same time, the 41 painting also allows for a sense of modernism with 42 gestural drawings, a blend of realism and abstraction, 43 and a push and pull of intimate, close-up space and 44 receding space. Kryczka draws us deeply into the 45 world of poetry as painting. 46 Tom Robinson's series, including portraits, mixed me- 47 dia figures, and a video presentation of his models, 48 is "a newer form of art" for the artist. "Hannah" is a 49 larger-than-life portrait, first drawn gesturally with char- 50 coal on paper, then enhanced with Adobe Photoshop, 51 and finally printed on special paper, giving the portrait a 52 lithographic quality. The drawing resembles the real 53 person (seen on the video) but seems to emerge as a 54 character from a Kafkaesque landscape drawn in 55 Manga.* Her eyes are looking to the side as if she is 56 attempting to peer over her shoulder without moving 57 her head, trying to see if someone is following her. 58 We look closely at her enlarged pupils, trying to un- 59 cover any hidden images, but there is nothing there 60 except for reflected light. She could easily become a 61 Japanese anime heroine, with shifting features and 62 flowing hair, or a William Kentridge study of sustained 63 ambiguity. Robinson's drawings, enhanced by his use 64 of technology and mixed media, engage us with his 65 view of art as transformation. 66 Bob Horn's series includes large-scale frontal por- 67 traitures and smaller drawings of toys and cultural 68 icons, all drawn with charcoal and white pastel on fine- 69 art paper. Horn's "Expulsion from the Garden" brings to 70 mind the early-Renaissance artist Massacio's fresco 71 of Adam and Eve, and Michelangelo's "The Fall and 72 Expulsion from the Garden of Eden," with the entice- 73 ment of the snake and the fall occurring simultane- 74 ously in the same painting. What is memorable about 75 these Renaissance-era paintings is the artists' ability 76 to express real emotional turmoil in the figures--Adam 77 and Eve feel fear, shame, guilt, sadness, and despair. 78 But in Horn's tongue-in-cheek interpretation, the expul- 79 sion reveals a Humpty-Dumpty apple figure looking for- 80 lornly in the distance, as a bewildered Homer Simpson 81 in his underwear and a smiling "dime-store Barbie" 82 march in single file away to oblivion. 83 In another series, Horn's "Man with Ring" and "Woman 84 with Ring" evoke Rembrandt's use of chiaroscuro** 85 and his ability to bring a naturalness to his subjects to 86 highlight their personalities. Horn's realistic style 87 brings to mind the 19th-century realist Henri Fantin- 88 Latour, who painted traditional portraits with great 89 detail in austere, understated compositions. However, 90 in Horn's portraits, both the man and woman are wear- 91 ing rings not on their fingers, as they might have in a 92 Fantin-Latour portrait, but in their noses. Dressed in a 93 New York Yankees T-shirt, the young African-American 94 man carries an expression of intelligence, serious- 95 ness, and wonderment at the same time. Although the 96 young woman is wearing only a nose ring, her coun- 97 tenance tells us that she is strong, smart, outgoing, 98 and playful. Welcome to Bob Horn's world. *Manga is a Japanese print cartoon. **Chiaroscuro is using light and shadow for dramatic effect. Question: Which series of lines presents the best thesis for the passage?

Topic: Sentence Completion, Logic-Based Angela ________ checked her work for any ________ errors. Select the words that best complete the sentence.

Topic: Long Paired Passage PASSAGE 1 - 1 In 1912, Theodore Roosevelt, campaigning for pres- 2 ident on the Progressive Party ticket, endorsed 3 compulsory health insurance as part of his platform. 4 The same year, an organization of progressive econo- 5 mists started a crusade to make health insurance 6 mandatory for workers who earned less than $1,200 a 7 year (about $25,000 today). The cost of the premiums 8 would be shared by employer and employee (two-fifths 9 each) and the state. Compulsory health insurance, 10 proponents argued, would eliminate sickness as a 11 cause of poverty. 12 For a few years, it looked as though health-insurance 13 legislation in the U.S. was inevitable, and advanta- 14 geous for workers and doctors. With access to prompt 15 medical care, laborers would be able to return to their 16 jobs more quickly, keeping their families fed. And 17 doctors would prosper if a growing number of patients 18 could pay their fees. More than a dozen state legisla- 19 tures began considering compulsory health insurance 20 based on a model bill drafted by a labor group. 21 But the "professional philanthropists, busybody social 22 workers, misguided clergymen and hysterical women," 23 as an opponent described them, hadn't reckoned on a 24 mighty resistance movement of some the unlikeliest 25 political bedfellows in history. They included commer- 26 cial insurance companies; fraternal organizations; 27 pharmacists; manufacturers; Samuel Gompers, then 28 president of the American Federation of Labor, and 29 some other labor unions; Christian Scientists; assort- 30 ed xenophobes and anti-Communists; and -- the coup 31 de grace -- doctors. 32 Although united in their goal to defeat mandatory insur- 33 ance, the challengers had wildly different motives. 34 Commercial insurance companies and fraternal or- 35 ganizations sold sickness and burial policies and 36 feared losing business. Pharmacists suspected the 37 government would start telling patients what medi- 38 cines to take and how much they should cost. Samuel 39 Gompers argued that the solution to the problem of ill- 40 ness was not compulsory insurance but higher wages. 41 Management didn't want to pay for another benefit, 42 especially if, as a representative of an industry trade 43 group argued, "the sickness had been contracted 44 either through intemperate or licentious living." 45 America's entry into World War I in 1917 provided an- 46 other knock against health insurance: It was unAmeri- 47 can. As California prepared for a referendum on the 48 issue, commercial insurers published pamphlets 49 picturing Kaiser Wilhelm II with the caption, "Made in 50 Germany. Do you want it in California?" (Voters re- 51 jected the measure.) In Albany, an insurance bill under 52 consideration by the state Legislature came "straight 53 from Germany" and was "devilish in principle and 54 foreign to American ideals," argued Henry W. Berg, a 55 New York doctor. It never got out of committee. 56 The AALL also neglected to woo physicians, often ig- 57 noring their opinions when negotiating the legislation 58 Most doctors became convinced that health insurance 59 would insert the dubious judgment of the government 60 between patient and doctor, and cut their pay. Charles 61 H. Mayo, president of the American Medical Associa- 62 tion, urged physicians to be wary of "anything which 63 reduced the income of the physician" because that 64 would "limit his training, equipment and efficiency." 65 In the end, not a single state passed a health insur- 66 ance law. Henry Seager, one-time head of the AALL 67 and a Columbia University professor, said, "We are 68 still so far from considering illness as anything beyond 69 a private misfortune against which each individual and 70 each family should protect itself, as best it may, that 71 Germany's heroic method of attacking it as a national 72 evil through government machinery seems to us to 73 belong almost to another planet." PASSAGE 2 - 74 Politicians and pundits lump the terms "health care" 75 and "health insurance" together as though they are the 76 same thing. For example, Sen. Max Baucus, Montana 77 Democrat, recently said, "One in 6 Americans does not 78 have access to health care. And in my home state of 79 Montana, an even greater percentage of people have 80 limited access to health care: 1 in 5 Montanans lack 81 health insurance." 82 In reality, however, health care and health insurance 83 are quite different. Health care is the products and ser- 84 vices used for the prevention, treatment and manage- 85 ment of illness. Health insurance, on the other hand, is 86 a way of paying for health care. Specifically, it is an 87 agreement whereby the insurer pays for the health 88 care costs of the insured. 89 Believing health care and health insurance are the 90 same thing easily leads to some mistaken, if not 91 dangerous, notions. It leads to the beliefs that (1) uni- 92 versal health care and universal health insurance are 93 the same; and (2) that if a nation has universal health 94 insurance, where the government pays for every citi- 95 zen's health care, that nation will have universal health 96 care, where citizens will have ready access to health 97 care whenever they need it. As the experience of other 98 nations shows, however, universal health insurance 99 often leads to very restricted access to health care. 100 In nations where the government provides universal 101 health insurance -- such as Canada, Sweden and the 102 United Kingdom -- there are few restraints on citizens' 103 demand for health care. This leads to many citizens 104 overusing health care and creates a strain on govern- 105 ment budgets. To keep the costs from exploding, those 106 governments must restrict access to health care by 107 using waiting lists, canceling surgeries or delaying 108 access to new treatments such as prescription drugs. 109 The consequences can be quite harmful. 110 In 1997, three patients in Northern Ontario, Canada, 111 died while on a waiting list to receive heart surgery. 112 One patient had been waiting more than six months to 113 receive bypass surgery. In Britain, patient Mavis Skeet's 114 cancer surgery was canceled four times, during which 115 time her cancer became inoperable. It is important to 116 note, however, that all these people had health insur- 117 ance -- that is, their governments would pay for their 118 health care. What they did not have was ready access 119 to treatment. As the Canadian Supreme Court said 120 upon ruling a ban on private health care as unconstitu- 121 tional, "access to a waiting list is not access to health care." Question: The "proponents" (line 10) of compulsory health insurance in Passage 1 argue that:

Topic: Short Single Passage 1 Talk to the handful of "doughboys" who are still alive 2 today--the youngest of which is 105 years old, having 3 lied about his age in order to enlist as an ambulance 4 corpsman in 1917 and they still cannot bring them- 5 selves to discuss the brutal horror that was trench 6 warfare. "I don't want to think about it," one veteran 7 said, though he added that he thinks about his fallen 8 comrades every day of his unnaturally-long life. 9 The experience of any warfare, from our American 10 Civil War to the present conflicts in Iraq and 11 Afghanistan, often leaves veterans dumb, but there 12 was something exponentially more terrible, indeed 13 unspeakable, about the mass slaughter that marked 14 "The War to End All Wars," so named because it was 15 (to that point) that bloodiest conflict known to man. 16 Nearly 10 million soldiers died, and more than 20 17 million were wounded in four years of fighting. It made 18 folks so sick of war that they hoped against hope no 19 new war would ever erupt again. 20 The lethal drones and computerized smart-bombs of 21 today, the napalm and jungle warfare of Vietnam, the 22 frozen tundra and stalemate of the Korean peninsula, 23 or the aerial fire-bombing of The Second World War-- 24 for all their selective butchery, they are pale in com- 25 parison with the impassable mud, denuded land- 26 scapes, endless barbed wire and infected vermin, the 27 the mustard gas and killing field in between enemy 28 trenches forever known as "No-Man's Land" that 29 marked this particular conflict as the worst hardship 30 that soldiers ever had to endure. "All this madness," 31 the British philosopher Bertrand Russell once said, 32 "all this rage, all this flaming death of our civilization 33 and our hopes, has been brought about because a 34 set of official gentlemen, living luxurious lives, mostly 35 stupid, and all without imagination or heart, have 36 chosen that it should occur rather than that any one 37 of them should suffer some infinitesimal rebuff to his 38 country's pride." 39 Of course World War I did not "end all wars," but it did 40 awaken nations to unite initially as the League of 41 Nations and later as the United Nations in order to 42 take steps to correct some of the worst outrages of that 43 barbaric conflict, such as trench warfare, and in that 44 sense endures as the crucible of man's inhumanity to 45 man. Question: What is signified by the fact that the word "doughboys" (line 1) is in quotation marks?

Topic: Sentence Completion, Logic Based. Despite the initial ________ with which Andrea approached the cross-country train ride, she found the experience quite ________ . Select the words that best complete the sentence.

Topic: Long Paired Passage. PASSAGE 1 - 1 Sarah Lam, an eighth-grader at Presidio Middle 2 School in San Francisco, has learned to manage her 3 time better since sixth grade, when she spent three to 4 four hours toiling over nightly assignments, she said. 5 But her schedule these days--which includes orches- 6 tra, working as a tutor, plus two to three hours of 7 homework--is packed. Her father has occasionally 8 had to use college texts to help her answer science 9 homework questions. 10 Yet there's no evidence that lobbing on the home- 11 work in elementary grades boosts test scores later, 12 according to Harris Cooper, a psychology professor 13 at University of Missouri, who reviewed dozens of 14 studies and concluded homework may begin to pay 15 off in junior high. Cooper said giving large amounts of 16 homework in elementary school may have "negative 17 benefits" such as frustration, negative self-image and 18 not enough time to do other important activities. The 19 National Parent Teacher Association has 20 recommended 10 minutes per grade level, but 21 acknowledges that some kids have less and some 22 have a lot more. So why are schools doing it? 23 "There seem to be two sources," said Cooper. "Some 24 of the pressure is coming from parents who are 25 highly achievement-oriented. The other source is new 26 state standards, which are requiring teachers to 27 teach more, while at the same time requiring more 28 non-academic activities. In my district, for example, 29 fourth-graders learn swimming." There are parents 30 who protest, but principals and teachers say just as 31 many ask for more homework. Many believe that 32 heavy homework, while stressful, is a necessary bur- 33 den in a world that's increasingly competitive. They 34 assist when they can. Some hire homework coaches 35 to help their kids keep up and relieve the stress that 36 arguing over doing it can cause. Others sign up their 37 kids for test-taking classes or enrichment courses. 38 Businesses like Kumon and Score--which give kids 39 test practice--and the Report Card in San Rafael, 40 which sells educational materials and offers both 41 regular tutoring and enrichment classes, have 42 sprouted around the Bay area. 43 "The amount of homework kids are getting is out- 44 rageous," said Donna Gray, a tutor who offers not 45 only remedial help to students, but also enrichment 46 work some parents feel is necessary for their kids to 47 stay competitive. "If you don't develop physically, 48 emotionally and socially as well, it's not good . . ." 49 said Gray, a retired teacher who has a waiting list of 50 clients in Tiburon. "It's society today. I believe that 51 teachers today wouldn't give homework like this if it 52 weren't for the parents. The young teachers here 53 worry about the parents. They're smart, high- 54 achieving. It's hard for them to live up to what the 55 parents expect." 56 Now that homework appears to be at a peak, the 57 pendulum is bound to swing in the other direction, 58 said Gill, who believes reasonable amounts of home- 59 work can be a useful learning tool and give parents 60 "a window into the classroom." There already may be 61 a modest backlash brewing. Take, for example, Gill's 62 research colleague Steven Schlossman, head of the 63 history department at Carnegie Mellon University. He 64 said he had pulled his ninth-grade son out of private 65 school near Pittsburgh because of the unwieldy 66 amount of homework. One week, as an experiment, 67 Schlossman did the homework himself. It took him 35 68 hours. "That's what stimulated my interest in the 69 subject of homework," he said. "This is one of the 70 dramas going on throughout middle class America 71 that very few people want to talk about. They fear if 72 their child can't do it, he's destined to failure. But the 73 amount of trauma, if anyone wants to measure it, I'll 74 venture is extraordinary." PASSAGE 2 - 75 A comprehensive review of academic performance 76 around the world gives bad marks to excessive 77 homework. Teachers in Japan, the Czech Republic 78 and Denmark assign relatively little homework, yet 79 students there score well, researchers said this week. 80 "At the other end of the spectrum, countries with very 81 low average scores--Thailand, Greece, Iran--have 82 teachers who assign a great deal of homework," says 83 Penn State researcher David Baker. "American stu- 84 dents appear to do as much homework as their peers 85 overseas--if not more--but still only score around the 86 international average," said co-researcher Gerald 87 LeTendre. Baker and LeTendre examined the Third 88 International Study of Mathematics and Sciences 89 (TIMSS), which in 1994 collected data from schools 90 in 41 nations on performance in grades 4, 8 and 12. 91 Additional similar data from 1999 was factored in. 92 The homework burden is especially problematic in 93 poorer households, where parents may not have the 94 time or inclination to provide an environment condu- 95 cive to good study habits, the researchers conclude. 96 In particular, drills designed to improve memorization 97 may not be suited to many homes. 98 "An unintended consequence may be that those chil- 99 dren who need extra work and drill the most are the 100 ones least likely to get it," Baker said. "Increasing 101 homework loads is likely to aggravate tensions within 102 the family, thereby generating more inequality and 103 eroding the quality of overall education." 104 In the early 1980s, U.S. teachers began assigning 105 more homework, the researchers say. The shift was 106 in response to mediocre performance in comparison 107 to Japanese students. At the same time, the trend 108 was going the other way in Japanese schools. The 109 new study found U.S. math teachers assigned more 110 than two hours of homework a week in 1994-95, 111 while in Japan the figure was about one hour per 112 week. "Undue focus on homework as a national 113 quick-fix, rather than a focus on issues of instruc- 114 tional quality and equity of access to opportunity to 115 learn, may lead a country into wasted expenditures of 116 time and energy," LeTendre says. The homework 117 burden might also affect performance among children 118 of higher-income parents. "Parents are extremely 119 busy with work and household chores, not to mention 120 chauffeuring young people to various extracurricular 121 activities, athletic and otherwise," LeTendre said. 122 "Parents might sometimes see exercises in drill and 123 memorization as intrusions into time." Question: In line 65 of Passage 1, "unwieldy" most nearly means ________.

Topic: Short Single Passage 1 Being ashamed is a more ambivalent phenomenon 2 than the sense of shame. If discretion-shame sustains 3 the social ordering of the world, disgrace-shame is a 4 painful experience of the disintegration of one's world. 5 A break occurs in the self's relationship with itself 6 and/or others. The self is no longer whole, but divided. 7 It feels less than it wants to be, less than at its best it 8 knows itself to be. Sartre finds the effect of this 9 disruption so radical that he calls it an "internal 10 hemorrhage, the regrouping of all the objects in my 11 universe." Even when the advent of shame is less 12 dramatic, there is a disruption nonetheless that 13 manifests itself in a sense of confusion. The 14 disorientation that triggers shame always involves a 15 reflexive movement of consciousness. What is 16 actually experienced is a relation of distance. In some 17 cases the relation is interpersonal, between the self 18 and others who look at it; at other times the relation 19 occurs intrapersonally, as the self sees itself. In these 20 instances, the persons concerned are initially unself- 21 conscious, involved in, and given over to, an external 22 situation. They are conscious not of themselves, but of 23 the objects before them. But suddenly, the situation 24 changes, the mood is broken, and they are made 25 acutely aware of themselves as they are at that mo- 26 ment. Something happens that turns their attention to 27 themselves in such a way that they are not simply 28 there, but see themselves there, and this seeing 29 arouses shame. 30 Shame opens up a new level of consciousness of the 31 self. The undivided self in action gives way to the 32 doubled self. Shame is an act of self-attention. Each of 33 these elements of shame (disruption, disorientation, 34 and painful self-consciousness) manifests the rela- 35 tional character of the shame experience. This 36 relational nature of shame, in turn, contains a revel- 37 atory capacity. In the reflexive movement of conscious- 38 ness, a part of the self is revealed to the self. Sartre 39 has captured this quality of shame: "[Its] structure is 40 intentional; it is a shameful apprehension of some- 41 thing and this something is me. I am ashamed of 42 what I am. Shame therefore realizes an intimate rela- 43 tion of myself to myself. Through shame I have discov- 44 ered an aspect of my being. I recognize that I am as the 45 Other sees me." Question: The author uses the term "relation of distance" (line 16) to distinguish between which of the following?

Topic: Short Single Passage 1 Being ashamed is a more ambivalent phenomenon 2 than the sense of shame. If discretion-shame sustains 3 the social ordering of the world, disgrace-shame is a 4 painful experience of the disintegration of one's world. 5 A break occurs in the self's relationship with itself 6 and/or others. The self is no longer whole, but divided. 7 It feels less than it wants to be, less than at its best it 8 knows itself to be. Sartre finds the effect of this 9 disruption so radical that he calls it an "internal 10 hemorrhage, the regrouping of all the objects in my 11 universe." Even when the advent of shame is less 12 dramatic, there is a disruption nonetheless that 13 manifests itself in a sense of confusion. The 14 disorientation that triggers shame always involves a 15 reflexive movement of consciousness. What is 16 actually experienced is a relation of distance. In some 17 cases the relation is interpersonal, between the self 18 and others who look at it; at other times the relation 19 occurs intrapersonally, as the self sees itself. In these 20 instances, the persons concerned are initially unself- 21 conscious, involved in, and given over to, an external 22 situation. They are conscious not of themselves, but of 23 the objects before them. But suddenly, the situation 24 changes, the mood is broken, and they are made 25 acutely aware of themselves as they are at that mo- 26 ment. Something happens that turns their attention to 27 themselves in such a way that they are not simply 28 there, but see themselves there, and this seeing 29 arouses shame. 30 Shame opens up a new level of consciousness of the 31 self. The undivided self in action gives way to the 32 doubled self. Shame is an act of self-attention. Each of 33 these elements of shame (disruption, disorientation, 34 and painful self-consciousness) manifests the rela- 35 tional character of the shame experience. This 36 relational nature of shame, in turn, contains a revel- 37 atory capacity. In the reflexive movement of conscious- 38 ness, a part of the self is revealed to the self. Sartre 39 has captured this quality of shame: "[Its] structure is 40 intentional; it is a shameful apprehension of some- 41 thing and this something is me. I am ashamed of 42 what I am. Shame therefore realizes an intimate rela- 43 tion of myself to myself. Through shame I have discov- 44 ered an aspect of my being. I recognize that I am as the 45 Other sees me." Question: All of the following are effects of disgrace-shame except:

Topic: Short Single Passage 1 In their ongoing battle against evolution, creationists 2 argue that because there are no eyewitnesses re- 3 garding what occurred at the beginning of time and at 4 every stage since, creationism is just as plausible a 5 theory as evolution. In fact, creationists argue that the 6 Bible provides written evidence supporting their posi- 7 tion. Scientists counter that failure to physically see a 8 scientific phenomenon does not make it unfounded. 9 Many generally accepted scientific theories cannot be 10 witnessed, such as the existence of atoms and the 11 Earth's movement around the Sun, yet scientists infer 12 their existence through the use of "extensive 13 observation and experimentation." Question: The claim made by scientists that "failure to physically see a scientific phenomenon does not make it unfounded" (lines 7-8) serves as a counter argument to what creationist claim?

Topic: Long Single Passage. 1 Ever since the Census Bureau released figures 2 showing that married-couple households are now a 3 minority, my phone has been ringing off the hook with 4 calls from people asking: "How can we save mar- 5 riage? How can we make Americans understand that 6 marriage is the most significant emotional connection 7 they will ever make?" 8 I think these are the wrong questions--indeed, such 9 questions would have been almost unimaginable 10 through most of history. It has only been in the last 11 century that Americans have put all their emotional 12 eggs in the basket of coupled love. Because of this 13 change, many of us have found joys in marriage our 14 great-great-grandparents never did. But we have also 15 neglected our other relationships, placing too many 16 burdens on a fragile institution and making social life 17 poorer in the process. In fact, according to the Census 18 Bureau's figures, the number of people who depended 19 totally on a spouse for important conversations, with no 20 other person to turn to, almost doubled, to 9.4 percent 21 from 5 percent. Not surprisingly, the number of people 22 saying they didn't have anyone in whom they confided 23 nearly tripled. 24 The solution to this isolation is not to ramp up our 25 emotional dependence on marriage. Until 100 years 26 ago, most societies agreed that it was dangerously 27 antisocial to elevate marital affection and nuclear- 28 family ties above commitments to neighbors, extended 29 kin, civic duty and religion. 30 From medieval days until the early 19th century, diaries 31 and letters more often used the word love to refer to 32 neighbors, cousins and fellow church members than 33 to spouses. Victorian novels and diaries were as 34 passionate about brother-sister relationships and 35 same-sex friendships as about marital ties. 36 By the early 20th century, though, the sea change in the 37 culture wrought by the industrial economy had 38 loosened social obligations to neighbors and kin, 39 giving rise to the idea that individuals could meet their 40 deepest needs only through romantic love, culminat- 41 ing in marriage. Under the influence of Freudianism, 42 society began to view intense same-sex ties with sus- 43 picion and people were urged to reject the emotional 44 claims of friends and relatives who might compete with 45 a spouse for time and affection. 46 The insistence that marriage and parenthood could 47 satisfy all an individual's needs reached a peak in the 48 cult of "togetherness" among middle-class suburban 49 Americans in the 1950s. Women were told that 50 marriage and motherhood offered them complete 51 fulfillment. Men were encouraged to let their wives 52 take care of their social lives. 53 But many men and women found these prescriptions 54 stifling. Women who entered the work force in the 55 1960s joyfully rediscovered social contacts and 56 friendships outside the home. And women's lead in 57 overturning the cult of 1950s marriage inspired many 58 men to rediscover what earlier generations of men had 59 taken for granted -- that men need deep emotional 60 connections with other men, not just their wives. 61 Researchers soon found that men and women with 62 confidants beyond the nuclear family were mentally 63 and physically healthier than people who relied on just 64 one other individual for emotional intimacy and 65 support. 66 So why do we seem to be slipping back in this regard? 67 It is not because most people have voluntarily em- 68 braced nuclear-family isolation. Indeed, the spread of 69 "virtual" communities on the Internet speaks to a deep 70 hunger to reach out to others. Instead, it is the expan- 71 sion of the post-industrial economy that seems to be 72 driving us back to a new dependence on marriage. 73 According to the researchers Kathleen Gerson and 74 Jerry Jacobs, 60 percent of American married couples 75 have both partners in the work force, up from 36 per- 76 cent in 1970, and the average two-earner couple now 77 works 82 hours a week. This increase in working 78 hours is probably why the time Americans spend 79 socializing with others off the job has declined by 80 almost 25 percent since 1965. Their free hours are 81 spent with spouses. 82 As Americans lose the wider face-to-face ties that build 83 social trust, they become more dependent on romantic 84 relationships for intimacy and deep communication, 85 and more vulnerable to isolation if a relationship 86 breaks down. In some cases we even cause the 87 breakdown by loading the relationship with too many 88 expectations. Marriage is generally based on greater 89 equality and deeper friendship than in the past, but 90 even so, it is hard for marriage to compensate for the 91 way that work has devoured time once spent cultiva- 92 ting friendships. 93 The solution is not to revive the failed marital experi- 94 ment of the 1950s, as so many commentators noting 95 the decline in married-couple households seem 96 to want. Nor is it to lower our expectations that we'll 97 find fulfillment and friendship in marriage. Instead, we 98 should raise our expectations for, and commitment to, 99 other relationships. Paradoxically, we can strengthen 100 our marriages the most by not expecting them to be 101 our sole refuge from the pressures of the modern work 102 force. Instead, we need to restructure both work and 103 social life so we can reach out and build ties with 104 others, including people who are single or divorced. 105 That indeed would be a return to marital tradition--not 106 the 1950s model, but the pre-20th-century model that 107 has a much more enduring pedigree. Question: The author emphasizes the spread of "virtual" communities (lines 68-69) in order to achieve which of the following?

Topic: Sentence Completion, Logic-Based Instead of hiring a controversial speaker, the school hired a(n) ________ speaker, and his speech didn't lead to any subsequent ________ amongst the students. Select the words which best complete the sentence.

Topic: Sentence Completion, Vocabulary-in-Context Joseph was ________ of his sister's ________ ability to quickly learn new concepts in math because Joseph lacked the same natural-born ability. Select the words that best complete the sentence.

Topic: Sentence Completion, Logic-Based The tire popping within the first five minutes of the trip was a(n) ________ of the other obstacles to come. Select the word which best completes the sentence.