Section 1, Module 2: Reading and Writing (harder)

In addition to being an accomplished psychologist himself, Francis Cecil Sumner was

a_______ increasing the opportunity for Black students to study psychology, helping to found
the psychology department at Howard University, a historically Black university, in 1930.

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

A. proponent of
B. supplement to
C. beneficiary of
D. distraction for

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For her 2021 art installation Anthem, Wu Tsang joined forces with singer and composer
Beverly Glenn-Copeland to produce a piece that critics found truly ________ : they praised
Tsang for creatively transforming a museum rotunda into a dynamic exhibit by projecting
filmed images of Glenn-Copeland onto a massive 84-foot curtain and filling the space with
the sounds of his and other voices singing.

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

A. restrained
B. inventive
C. inexplicable
D. mystifying

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Scholarly discussions of gender in Shakespeare's comedies often celebrate the rebellion of

the playwright's characters against the rigid expectations _______ by Elizabethan society.
Most of the comedies end in marriage, with characters returning to their socially dictated
gender roles after previously defying them, but there are some notable exceptions.

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

A. interjected
B. committed
C. illustrated
D. prescribed
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The work of Kiowa painter T.C. Cannon derives its power in part from the tension among his
________ influences: classic European portraiture, with its realistic treatment of faces; the
American pop art movement, with its vivid colors; and flatstyle, the intertribal painting style
that rejects the effect of depth typically achieved through shading and perspective.

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

A. complementary
B. unknown
C. disparate
D. interchangeable

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Text 1

Conventional wisdom long held that human social systems evolved in stages, beginning with
hunter-gatherers forming small bands of members with roughly equal status. The shift to
agriculture about 12,000 years ago sparked population growth that led to the emergence of
groups with hierarchical structures: associations of clans first, then chiefdoms, and finally,
bureaucratic states.

Text 2

In a 2021 book, anthropologist David Graeber and archaeologist David Wengrow maintain
that humans have always been socially flexible, alternately forming systems based on
hierarchy and collective ones with decentralized leadership. The authors point to evidence
that as far back as 50,000 years ago some hunter-gatherers adjusted their social structures
seasonally, at times dispersing in small groups but also assembling into communities that
included esteemed individuals.

05 Based on the texts, how would Graeber and Wengrow (Text 2) most likely respond to the
"conventional wisdom" presented in Text 1?

A. By conceding the importance of hierarchical systems but asserting the greater

significance of decentralized collective societies
B. By disputing the idea that developments in social structures have followed a linear
progression through distinct stages
C. By acknowledging that hierarchical roles likely weren't a part of social systems
before the rise of agriculture
D. By challenging the assumption that groupings of hunter-gatherers were among the
earliest forms of social structure

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In 1934 physicist Eugene Wigner posited the existence of a crystal consisting entirely of
electrons in a honeycomb-like structure. The so called Wigner crystal remained largely
conjecture, however, until Feng Wang and colleagues announced in 2021 that they had
captured an image of one. The researchers trapped electrons between two semiconductors
and then cooled the apparatus, causing the electrons to settle into a crystalline structure. By
inserting an ultrathin sheet of graphene above the crystal, the researchers obtained an
impression—the first visual confirmation of the Wigner crystal.

06 Which choice best states the main idea of the text?

A. Researchers have obtained the most definitive evidence to date of the existence of the
Wigner crystal.
B. Researchers have identified an innovative new method for working with unusual
crystalline structures.
C. Graphene is the most important of the components required to capture an image of a
Wigner crystal.
D. It's difficult to acquire an image of a Wigner crystal because of the crystal's
honeycomb structure.

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For many years, the only existing fossil evidence of mixopterid eurypterids—an extinct
family of large aquatic arthropods known as sea scorpions and related to modern arachnids
and horseshoe crabs-came from four species living on the paleocontinent of Laurussia. In a
discovery that expands our understanding of the geographical distribution of mixopterids,
paleontologist Bo Wang and others have identified fossilized remains of a new mixopterid
species, Terropterus xiushanensis, that lived over 400 million years ago on the
paleocontinent of Gondwana

07 According to the text, why was Wang and his team's discovery of the Terropterus
xiushanensis fossil significant?

A. The fossil constitutes the first evidence found by scientists that mixopterids lived
more than 400 million years ago.
B. The fossil helps establish that mixopterids are more closely related to modern
arachnids and horseshoe crabs than previously thought.
C. The fossil helps establish a more accurate timeline of the evolution of mixopterids on
the paleocontinents of Laurussia and Gondwana.
D. The fossil constitutes the first evidence found by scientists that mixopterids existed
outside the paleocontinent of Laurussia

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The following text is adapted from Edith Nesbit's 1906 novel The Railway Children.

Mother did not spend all her time in paying dull [visits] to dull ladies, and sitting
dully at home waiting for dull ladies to pay [visits] to her. She was almost always there,
ready to play with the children, and read to them, and help them to do their home-lessons.
Besides this she used to write stories for them while they were at school, and read them
aloud after tea, and she always made up funny pieces of poetry for their birthdays and for
other great occasions.

08 According to the text, what is true about Mother?

A. She wishes that more ladies would visit her.

B. Birthdays are her favorite special occasion.
C. She creates stories and poems for her children.
D. Reading to her children is her favorite activity.

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“The Young Girl” is a 1920 short story by Katherine Mansfield. In the story, the narrator
takes an unnamed seventeen-year old girl and her younger brother out for a meal. In
describing the teenager, Mansfield frequently contrasts the character's pleasant appearance
with her unpleasant attitude, as when Mansfield writes of the teenager, _______

09 Which quotation from "The Young Girl" most effectively illustrates the claim?

A. "I heard her murmur, 'I can't bear flowers on a table. They had evidently been giving
her intense pain, for she positively closed her eyes as I moved them away."
B. "While we waited she took out a little, gold powder-box with a mirror in the lid, shook
the poor little puff as though she loathed it, and dabbed her lovely nose."
C. "I saw, after that, she couldn't stand this place a moment longer, and, indeed, she
jumped up and turned away while I went through the vulgar act of paying for the
tea."
D. "She didn't even take her gloves off. She lowered her eyes and drummed on the table.
When a faint violin sounded she winced and bit her lip again. Silence."

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The largest tyrannosaurids—the family of carnivorous dinosaurs that includes Tarbosaurus,
Albertosaurus, and, most famously, Tyrannosaurus rex—are thought to have had the
strongest bites of any land animals in Earth's history. Determining the bite force of extinct
animals can be difficult, however, and paleontologists Paul Barrett and Emily Rayfield have
suggested that an estimate of dinosaur bite force may be significantly influenced by the
methodology used in generating that estimate.

10 Which choice best describes data from the table that support Barrett and Rayfield's
suggestion?

A. The study by Meers used body-mass scaling and produced the lowest estimated
maximum bite force, while the study by Cost et al. used muscular and skeletal
modeling and produced the highest estimated maximum.
B. In their study, Gignac and Erickson used tooth-bone interaction analysis to produce
an estimated bite force range with a minimum of 8,000 newtons and a maximum of
34,000 newtons.
C. The bite force estimates produced by Bates and Falkingham and by Cost et al. were
similar to each other, while the estimates produced by Meers and by Gignac and
Erickson each differed substantially from any other estimate.
D. The estimated maximum bite force produced by Cost et al. exceeded the estimated
maximum produced by Bates and Falkingham, even though both groups of
researchers used the same method to generate their estimates.

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51
When digging for clams, their primary food, sea otters damage the roots of eelgrass plants
growing on the seafloor. Near Vancouver Island in Canada, the otter population is large and
well established, yet the eelgrass meadows are healthier than those found elsewhere off
Canada's coast. To explain this, conservation scientist Erin Foster and colleagues compared
the Vancouver Island meadows to meadows where otters are absent or were reintroduced
only recently. Finding that the Vancouver Island meadows have a more diverse gene pool
than the others do, Foster hypothesized that damage to eelgrass roots increases the plant's
rate of sexual reproduction; this, in turn, boosts genetic diversity, which benefits the
meadow's health overall.

11 Which finding, if true, would most directly undermine Foster's hypothesis?

A. At some sites in the study, eelgrass meadows are found near otter populations that
are small and have only recently been reintroduced.
B. At several sites not included in the study, there are large, well-established sea otter
populations but no eelgrass meadows.
C. At several sites not included in the study, eelgrass meadows' health correlates
negatively with the length of residence and size of otter populations.
D. At some sites in the study, the health of plants unrelated to eelgrass correlates
negatively with the length of residence and size of otter populations

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In the mountains of Brazil, Barbacenia tomentosa and Barbacenia macrantha—two plants

in the Velloziaceae family—establish themselves on soilless, nutrient-poor patches of
quartzite rock. Plant ecologists Anna Abrahao and Patricia de Britto Costa used microscopic
analysis to determine that the roots of B. tomentosa and B. macrantha, which grow directly
into the quartzite, have clusters of fine hairs near the root tip; further analysis indicated
that these hairs secrete both malic and citric acids. The researchers hypothesize that the
plants depend on dissolving underlying rock with these acids, as the process not only creates
channels for continued growth but also releases phosphates that provide the vital nutrient
phosphorus.

12 Which finding, if true, would most directly support the researchers' hypothesis?

A. Other species in the Velloziaceae family are found in terrains with more soil but have
root structures similar to those of B. tomentosa and B. macrantha.
B. Though B. tomentosa and B. macrantha both secrete citric and malic acids, each
species produces the acids in different proportions.
C. The roots of B. tomentosa and B. macrantha carve new entry points into rocks even
when cracks in the surface are readily available.
D. B. tomentosa and B. macrantha thrive even when transferred to the surfaces of rocks
that do not contain phosphates.
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Ancestral Puebloans, the civilization from which present-day Pueblo tribes descended,
emerged as early as 1500 B.C.E. in an area of what is now the southwestern United States
and dispersed suddenly in the late 1200s C.E., abandoning established villages with systems
for farming crops and turkeys. Recent analysis comparing turkey remains at Mesa Verde,
one such village in southern Colorado, to samples from modern turkey populations in the Rio
Grande Valley of north central New Mexico determined that the latter birds descended in
part from turkeys cultivated at Mesa Verde, with shared genetic markers appearing only
after 1280. Thus, researchers concluded that ______

13 Which choice most logically completes the text?

A. conditions of the terrains in the Rio Grande Valley and Mesa Verde had greater
similarities in the past than they do today.
B. some Ancestral Puebloans migrated to the Rio Grande Valley in the late 1200s and
carried farming practices with them.
C. Indigenous peoples living in the Rio Grande Valley primarily planted crops and did
not cultivate turkeys before 1280
D. the Ancestral Puebloans of Mesa Verde likely adopted the farming practices of
Indigenous peoples living in other regions.

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Ratified by more than 90 countries, the Nagoya Protocol is an international agreement

ensuring that Indigenous communities are compensated when their agricultural resources
and knowledge of wild plants and animals are utilized by agricultural corporations.
However, the protocol has shortcomings. For example, it allows corporations to insist that
their agreements with communities to conduct research on the commercial uses of the
communities' resources and knowledge remain confidential. Therefore, some Indigenous
advocates express concern that the protocol may have the unintended effect of _________

14 Which choice most logically completes the text?

A. diminishing the monetary reward that corporations might derive from their
agreements with Indigenous communities.
B. limiting the research that corporations conduct on the resources of the Indigenous
communities with which they have signed agreements.
C. preventing independent observers from determining whether the agreements
guarantee equitable compensation for Indigenous communities.
D. discouraging Indigenous communities from learning new methods for harvesting
plants and animals from their corporate partners

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The domestic sweet potato (Ipomoea batatas) descends from a wild plant native to South
America. It also populates the Polynesian Islands, where evidence confirms that Native
Hawaiians and other Indigenous peoples were cultivating the plant centuries before
seafaring first occurred over the thousands of miles of ocean separating them from South
America. To explain how the sweet potato was first introduced in Polynesia, botanist Pablo
Muñoz-Rodríguez and colleagues analyzed the DNA of numerous varieties of the plant,
concluding that Polynesian varieties diverged from South American ones over 100,000 years
ago. Given that Polynesia was peopled only in the last three thousand years, the team
concluded that _______

15 Which choice most logically completes the text?

A. the cultivation of the sweet potato in Polynesia likely predates its cultivation in
South America.
B. Polynesian peoples likely acquired the sweet potato from South American peoples
only within the last three thousand years.
C. human activity likely played no role in the introduction of the sweet potato in
Polynesia.
D. Polynesian sweet potato varieties likely descend from a single South American
variety that was domesticated, not wild.

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In Death Valley National Park's Racetrack Playa, a flat, dry lakebed, are 162 rocks—some
weighing less than a pound but others almost 700 pounds—that move periodically from
place to place, seemingly of their own volition. Racetrack-like trails in the ________
mysterious migration.

16 Which choice completes the text so that it conforms to the conventions of Standard
English?

A. playa's sediment mark the rocks

B. playas sediment mark the rock's
C. playa's sediment mark the rocks'
D. playas' sediment mark the rocks'

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Nigerian author Buchi Emecheta's celebrated literary oeuvre includes The Joys of
Motherhood, a novel about the changing roles of women in 1950s _______ a television play
about the private struggles of a newlywed couple in Nigeria; and Head Above Water, her
autobiography.

17 Which choice completes the text so that it conforms to the conventions of Standard
English?

A. Lagos, A Kind of Marriage,

B. Lagos; A Kind of Marriage,
C. Lagos, A Kind of Marriage:
D. Lagos; A Kind of Marriage
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In 2016, engineer Vanessa Galvez oversaw the installation of 164 bioswales, vegetated
channels designed to absorb and divert stormwater, along the streets of Queens, New York.
By reducing the runoff flowing into city sewers, _______

18 Which choice completes the text so that it conforms to the conventions of Standard
English?

A. the mitigation of both street flooding and the resulting pollution of nearby waterways
has been achieved by bioswales.
B. the bioswales have mitigated both street flooding and the resulting pollution of
nearby waterways.
C. the bioswales' mitigation of both street flooding and the resulting pollution of nearby
waterways has been achieved.
D. both street flooding and the resulting pollution of nearby waterways have been
mitigated by bioswales.

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From afar, African American fiber artist Bisa Butler's portraits look like paintings, their
depictions of human faces, bodies, and clothing so intricate that it seems only a fine brush
could have rendered them. When viewed up close, however, the portraits reveal themselves
to be_____ stitching barely visible among the thousands of pieces of printed, microcut fabric.

19 Which choice completes the text so that it conforms to the conventions of Standard
English?

A. quilts, and the

B. quilts, the
C. quilts; the
D. quilts, The

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Compared to that of alumina glass, silica glass atoms are so far apart that they are unable
to reform bonds after being separated.

20 Which choice completes the text so that it conforms to the conventions of Standard
English?

A. silica glass is at a significant disadvantage due to its more dispersed atomic

arrangement:
B. silica glass has a more dispersed atomic arrangement, resulting in a significant
disadvantage:
C. a significant disadvantage of silica glass is that its atomic arrangement is more
dispersed:
D. silica glass's atomic arrangement is more dispersed, resulting in a significant
disadvantage:

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In the historical novel The Surrender Tree, Cuban American author Margarita Engle uses
poetry rather than prose ___________ the true story of Cuban folk hero Rosa La Bayamesa.

21 Which choice completes the text so that it conforms to the conventions of Standard
English?

A. tells
B. told
C. is telling
D. to tell

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Sociologist Alton Okinaka sits on the review board tasked with adding new sites to the
Hawai'i Register of Historic Places, which includes Pi'ilanihale Heiau and the 'Opaekaʻa
Road Bridge. Okinaka doesn't make such decisions _____ all historical designations must be
approved by a group of nine other experts from the fields of architecture, archaeology,
history, and Hawaiian culture.

22 Which choice completes the text so that it conforms to the conventions of Standard
English?

A. single-handedly, however;
B. single-handedly; however,
C. single-handedly, however,
D. single-handedly however
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When Chinese director Chloe Zhao accepted the Oscar in 2021 for her film Nomadland, she
made Academy Award history. ____ only one other woman, Kathryn Bigelow of the United
States, had been named best director at the Oscars, making Zhao the second woman and the
first Asian woman to win the award.

23 Which choice completes the text with the most logical transition?

A. As a result,
B. Previously,
C. However,
D. Likewise,
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Researchers Helena Mihaljevic-Brandt, Lucia Santamaria, and Marco Tullney report that
while mathematicians may have traditionally worked alone, evidence points to a shift in the
opposite direction. ______mathematicians are choosing to collaborate with their peers—a
trend illustrated by a rise in the number of mathematics publications credited to multiple
authors.

24 Which choice completes the text with the most logical transition?

A. Similarly,
B. For this reason,
C. Furthermore,
D. Increasingly,

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When soil becomes contaminated by toxic metals, it can be removed from the ground and
disposed of in a landfill. ______ contaminated soil can be detoxified via phytoremediation:
plants that can withstand high concentrations of metals absorb the pollutants and store
them in their shoots, which are then cut off and safely disposed of, preserving the health of
the plants.

25 Which choice completes the text with the most logical transition?

A. Alternatively,
B. Specifically,
C. For example,
D. As a result,

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While researching a topic, a student has taken the following notes:

• In the late 1890s, over 14,000 unique varieties of apples were grown in the US.
• The rise of industrial agriculture in the mid-1900s narrowed the range of
commercially grown crops.
• Thousands of apple varieties considered less suitable for commercial growth were
lost.
• Today, only 15 apple varieties dominate the market, making up 90% of apples
purchased in the US.
• The Lost Apple Project, based in Washington State, attempts to find and grow lost
apple varieties.

26 The student wants to emphasize the decline in unique apple varieties in the US and
specify why this decline occurred. Which choice most effectively uses relevant information
from the notes to accomplish these goals?

A. The Lost Apple Project is dedicated to finding some of the apple varieties lost
following a shift in agricultural practices in the mid1900s
B. While over 14,000 apple varieties were grown in the US in the late 1890s, only 15
unique varieties make up most of the apples sold today.

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 C. Since the rise of industrial agriculture, US farmers have mainly grown the same few
unique apple varieties, resulting in the loss of thousands of varieties less suitable for
commercial growth.
D. As industrial agriculture rose to prominence in the mid-1900s, the number of crops
selected for cultivation decreased dramatically.

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While researching a topic, a student has taken the following notes:

• The Atlantic Monthly magazine was first published in 1857.

• The magazine focused on politics, art, and literature.
• In 2019, historian Cathryn Halverson published the book Faraway Women and the
"Atlantic Monthly."
• Its subject is female authors whose autobiographies appeared in the magazine in the
early 1900s.
• One of the authors discussed is Juanita Harrison.

27 The student wants to introduce Cathryn Halverson's book to an audience already familiar
with the Atlantic Monthly. Which choice most effectively uses relevant information from the
notes to accomplish this goal?

A. A Cathryn Halverson's Faraway Women and the "Atlantic Monthly" discusses female
authors whose autobiographies appeared in the magazine in the early 1900s.
B. A magazine called the Atlantic Monthly, referred to in Cathryn Halverson's book
title, was first published in 1857.
C. Faraway Women and the "Atlantic Monthly" features contributors to the Atlantic
Monthly, first published in 1857 as a magazine focusing on politics, art, and
literature.
D. An author discussed by Cathryn Halverson is Juanita Harrison, whose
autobiography appeared in the Atlantic Monthly in the early 1900s.

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