Question:
Passage: The corrido, a type of narrative folk song, comes from a region half in Mexico and half in the United States known as the Lower Rio Grande Border. Corridos, which flourished from about 1836 to the late 1930s, are part of a long-standing ballad tradition that has roots in eighteenth-century Spain. Sung in Spanish, corridos combine formal features of several different types of folk songs, but their narratives consistently deal with subject matter specific to the Border region. For example, "El Corrido de Kiansis" (c. 1870), the oldest corrido surviving in complete form, records the first cattle drives to Kansas in the late 1860s. A single important event is likely to have inspired several corrido variants, yet the different versions of any given story all partake of standard generic elements. When sung at social gatherings, corridos served to commemorate significant local happenings, but more importantly, their heavy reliance on familiar linguistic and thematic conventions served to affirm the cohesiveness of Border communities. Corridos take their name from the Spanish verb correr, meaning to run or to flow, for corridos tell their stories simply and swiftly, without embellishments. Figures of speech such as metaphors are generally rare in corridos, and when metaphors are used, they usually incorporate everyday images that are familiar to the songs' listeners. In the popular "El Corrido de Gregorio Cortez," for example, the hero Cortez, fighting off pursuers, uses the metaphor of a thunderstorm to boast that he has had harder fights than the one they gave him: "I have weathered thunderstorms; / This little mist doesn't bother me." Similar storm imagery is found in other corridos including "Kiansis," which tells of stampedes caused by thunderstorms during the Kansas cattle drives. Such imagery, highly conventional and readily recognizable to corrido listeners, reflects and strengthens the continuity of the corrido tradition. The corrido is composed not only of familiar images but also of certain ready-made lines that travel easily from one ballad to another. This is most evident in the corrido's formal closing verse, or despedida. The despedida of one variant of "Gregorio Cortez" is translated as follows: "Now with this I say farewell / In the shade of a cypress tree; / This is the end of the ballad / Of Don Gregorio Cortez." The first and third lines are a set convention. The second and fourth lines are variable, the fourth carrying the name of the corrido or expressing its subject, and the second varying according to exigencies of rhyme. In the despedida, perhaps the clearest marker of both the corrido's uniqueness and its generic continuity, the corrido's maker asserts that the task of relating an authentic Border tale has been accomplished.
Q: Given its tone and content, from which one of the following was the passage most likely drawn?
Choices:
A.) a book describing various North American folk song forms
B.) a study focusing on the ballad's influence on the music of eighteenth-century Spain
C.) an editorial in a contemporary newspaper from the Lower Rio Grande Border
D.) a brochure for contemporary tourists to the Lower Rio Grande Border
Answer:

Choices:
- A
- B
- C
- D


Question:
Passage: The corrido, a type of narrative folk song, comes from a region half in Mexico and half in the United States known as the Lower Rio Grande Border. Corridos, which flourished from about 1836 to the late 1930s, are part of a long-standing ballad tradition that has roots in eighteenth-century Spain. Sung in Spanish, corridos combine formal features of several different types of folk songs, but their narratives consistently deal with subject matter specific to the Border region. For example, "El Corrido de Kiansis" (c. 1870), the oldest corrido surviving in complete form, records the first cattle drives to Kansas in the late 1860s. A single important event is likely to have inspired several corrido variants, yet the different versions of any given story all partake of standard generic elements. When sung at social gatherings, corridos served to commemorate significant local happenings, but more importantly, their heavy reliance on familiar linguistic and thematic conventions served to affirm the cohesiveness of Border communities. Corridos take their name from the Spanish verb correr, meaning to run or to flow, for corridos tell their stories simply and swiftly, without embellishments. Figures of speech such as metaphors are generally rare in corridos, and when metaphors are used, they usually incorporate everyday images that are familiar to the songs' listeners. In the popular "El Corrido de Gregorio Cortez," for example, the hero Cortez, fighting off pursuers, uses the metaphor of a thunderstorm to boast that he has had harder fights than the one they gave him: "I have weathered thunderstorms; / This little mist doesn't bother me." Similar storm imagery is found in other corridos including "Kiansis," which tells of stampedes caused by thunderstorms during the Kansas cattle drives. Such imagery, highly conventional and readily recognizable to corrido listeners, reflects and strengthens the continuity of the corrido tradition. The corrido is composed not only of familiar images but also of certain ready-made lines that travel easily from one ballad to another. This is most evident in the corrido's formal closing verse, or despedida. The despedida of one variant of "Gregorio Cortez" is translated as follows: "Now with this I say farewell / In the shade of a cypress tree; / This is the end of the ballad / Of Don Gregorio Cortez." The first and third lines are a set convention. The second and fourth lines are variable, the fourth carrying the name of the corrido or expressing its subject, and the second varying according to exigencies of rhyme. In the despedida, perhaps the clearest marker of both the corrido's uniqueness and its generic continuity, the corrido's maker asserts that the task of relating an authentic Border tale has been accomplished.
Q: Which one of the following is mentioned in the passage as an example of the use of metaphor in corridos?
Choices:
A.) stampedes
B.) a fight
C.) mist
D.) a cypress tree
Answer:

Choices:
- A
- B
- C
- D


Question:
Passage: The corrido, a type of narrative folk song, comes from a region half in Mexico and half in the United States known as the Lower Rio Grande Border. Corridos, which flourished from about 1836 to the late 1930s, are part of a long-standing ballad tradition that has roots in eighteenth-century Spain. Sung in Spanish, corridos combine formal features of several different types of folk songs, but their narratives consistently deal with subject matter specific to the Border region. For example, "El Corrido de Kiansis" (c. 1870), the oldest corrido surviving in complete form, records the first cattle drives to Kansas in the late 1860s. A single important event is likely to have inspired several corrido variants, yet the different versions of any given story all partake of standard generic elements. When sung at social gatherings, corridos served to commemorate significant local happenings, but more importantly, their heavy reliance on familiar linguistic and thematic conventions served to affirm the cohesiveness of Border communities. Corridos take their name from the Spanish verb correr, meaning to run or to flow, for corridos tell their stories simply and swiftly, without embellishments. Figures of speech such as metaphors are generally rare in corridos, and when metaphors are used, they usually incorporate everyday images that are familiar to the songs' listeners. In the popular "El Corrido de Gregorio Cortez," for example, the hero Cortez, fighting off pursuers, uses the metaphor of a thunderstorm to boast that he has had harder fights than the one they gave him: "I have weathered thunderstorms; / This little mist doesn't bother me." Similar storm imagery is found in other corridos including "Kiansis," which tells of stampedes caused by thunderstorms during the Kansas cattle drives. Such imagery, highly conventional and readily recognizable to corrido listeners, reflects and strengthens the continuity of the corrido tradition. The corrido is composed not only of familiar images but also of certain ready-made lines that travel easily from one ballad to another. This is most evident in the corrido's formal closing verse, or despedida. The despedida of one variant of "Gregorio Cortez" is translated as follows: "Now with this I say farewell / In the shade of a cypress tree; / This is the end of the ballad / Of Don Gregorio Cortez." The first and third lines are a set convention. The second and fourth lines are variable, the fourth carrying the name of the corrido or expressing its subject, and the second varying according to exigencies of rhyme. In the despedida, perhaps the clearest marker of both the corrido's uniqueness and its generic continuity, the corrido's maker asserts that the task of relating an authentic Border tale has been accomplished.
Q: The author discusses metaphor in the second paragraph primarily in order to
Choices:
A.) elaborate on a claim about the directness of the
B.) language used in corridos counter the commonplace assertion that narrative is the main object of corridos
C.) identify an element common to all variants of a particular corrido
D.) point out the longevity of the corrido tradition
Answer:

Choices:
- A
- B
- C
- D


Question:
Passage: The corrido, a type of narrative folk song, comes from a region half in Mexico and half in the United States known as the Lower Rio Grande Border. Corridos, which flourished from about 1836 to the late 1930s, are part of a long-standing ballad tradition that has roots in eighteenth-century Spain. Sung in Spanish, corridos combine formal features of several different types of folk songs, but their narratives consistently deal with subject matter specific to the Border region. For example, "El Corrido de Kiansis" (c. 1870), the oldest corrido surviving in complete form, records the first cattle drives to Kansas in the late 1860s. A single important event is likely to have inspired several corrido variants, yet the different versions of any given story all partake of standard generic elements. When sung at social gatherings, corridos served to commemorate significant local happenings, but more importantly, their heavy reliance on familiar linguistic and thematic conventions served to affirm the cohesiveness of Border communities. Corridos take their name from the Spanish verb correr, meaning to run or to flow, for corridos tell their stories simply and swiftly, without embellishments. Figures of speech such as metaphors are generally rare in corridos, and when metaphors are used, they usually incorporate everyday images that are familiar to the songs' listeners. In the popular "El Corrido de Gregorio Cortez," for example, the hero Cortez, fighting off pursuers, uses the metaphor of a thunderstorm to boast that he has had harder fights than the one they gave him: "I have weathered thunderstorms; / This little mist doesn't bother me." Similar storm imagery is found in other corridos including "Kiansis," which tells of stampedes caused by thunderstorms during the Kansas cattle drives. Such imagery, highly conventional and readily recognizable to corrido listeners, reflects and strengthens the continuity of the corrido tradition. The corrido is composed not only of familiar images but also of certain ready-made lines that travel easily from one ballad to another. This is most evident in the corrido's formal closing verse, or despedida. The despedida of one variant of "Gregorio Cortez" is translated as follows: "Now with this I say farewell / In the shade of a cypress tree; / This is the end of the ballad / Of Don Gregorio Cortez." The first and third lines are a set convention. The second and fourth lines are variable, the fourth carrying the name of the corrido or expressing its subject, and the second varying according to exigencies of rhyme. In the despedida, perhaps the clearest marker of both the corrido's uniqueness and its generic continuity, the corrido's maker asserts that the task of relating an authentic Border tale has been accomplished.
Q: The passage provides the most support for inferring which one of the following?
Choices:
A.) Most corrido variants have the same despedida.
B.) Most surviving corridos do not exist in complete form.
C.) "El Corrido de Kiansis" was composed someone not from the Border region.
D.) All complete corridos have some lines in common.
Answer:

Choices:
- A
- B
- C
- D


Question:
Passage: The corrido, a type of narrative folk song, comes from a region half in Mexico and half in the United States known as the Lower Rio Grande Border. Corridos, which flourished from about 1836 to the late 1930s, are part of a long-standing ballad tradition that has roots in eighteenth-century Spain. Sung in Spanish, corridos combine formal features of several different types of folk songs, but their narratives consistently deal with subject matter specific to the Border region. For example, "El Corrido de Kiansis" (c. 1870), the oldest corrido surviving in complete form, records the first cattle drives to Kansas in the late 1860s. A single important event is likely to have inspired several corrido variants, yet the different versions of any given story all partake of standard generic elements. When sung at social gatherings, corridos served to commemorate significant local happenings, but more importantly, their heavy reliance on familiar linguistic and thematic conventions served to affirm the cohesiveness of Border communities. Corridos take their name from the Spanish verb correr, meaning to run or to flow, for corridos tell their stories simply and swiftly, without embellishments. Figures of speech such as metaphors are generally rare in corridos, and when metaphors are used, they usually incorporate everyday images that are familiar to the songs' listeners. In the popular "El Corrido de Gregorio Cortez," for example, the hero Cortez, fighting off pursuers, uses the metaphor of a thunderstorm to boast that he has had harder fights than the one they gave him: "I have weathered thunderstorms; / This little mist doesn't bother me." Similar storm imagery is found in other corridos including "Kiansis," which tells of stampedes caused by thunderstorms during the Kansas cattle drives. Such imagery, highly conventional and readily recognizable to corrido listeners, reflects and strengthens the continuity of the corrido tradition. The corrido is composed not only of familiar images but also of certain ready-made lines that travel easily from one ballad to another. This is most evident in the corrido's formal closing verse, or despedida. The despedida of one variant of "Gregorio Cortez" is translated as follows: "Now with this I say farewell / In the shade of a cypress tree; / This is the end of the ballad / Of Don Gregorio Cortez." The first and third lines are a set convention. The second and fourth lines are variable, the fourth carrying the name of the corrido or expressing its subject, and the second varying according to exigencies of rhyme. In the despedida, perhaps the clearest marker of both the corrido's uniqueness and its generic continuity, the corrido's maker asserts that the task of relating an authentic Border tale has been accomplished.
Q: The passage most strongly suggests that the author would agree with which one of the following statements?
Choices:
A.) Much of the imagery used in corridos can also be identified in ballads from Spain.
B.) A corrido without a surviving despedida would
C.) In at least some cases, the dependence of corridos on ready-made lines hindered the efforts of corrido makers to use metaphor effectively.
D.) The reportorial capability of corridos was probably enhanced by their freedom from the constraints of rhymed ballad forms.
Answer:

Choices:
- A
- B
- C
- D


Question:
Passage: The characteristic smell or taste of a plant, to insects as well as to humans, depends on its chemical composition. Broadly speaking, plants contain two categories of chemical substances: primary and secondary. The primary substances, such as proteins, carbohydrates, vitamins, and hormones, are required for growth and proper functioning and are found in all plants. The secondary substances are a diverse and multitudinous array of chemicals that have no known role in the internal chemical processes of plants' growth or metabolism. Only a few of these substances occur in any one species of plant, but the same or similar ones tend to occur in related plants such as the various species that constitute a single family. It is these secondary substances that give plants their distinctive tastes and smells. Insects appear to have played a major role in many plants' having the secondary substances they have today. Such substances undoubtedly first appeared, and new ones continue to appear, as the result of genetic mutations in individual plants. But if a mutation is to survive and be passed on to subsequent generations, it must pass the muster of natural selection—that is, it must increase the likelihood of the organism's surviving and reproducing. Some secondary substances are favored by natural selection because they are scents that attract pollinating insects to blossoms. Such scents signal the presence of nectar, which nourishes the insects without damage to the plants. Other secondary substances that arose by mutation were conserved by natural selection because they proved to be biochemical defenses against the enemies of plants, the majority of which are insects. Some of these defensive substances cause insects to suffer unpleasant symptoms or even to die. Still other secondary substances are not in themselves harmful to insects, but are characteristic smells or tastes that dissuade the insect from feeding by warning it of the presence of some other substance that is harmful. For hundreds of millions of years there has been an evolutionary competition for advantage between plants and plant-eating insects. If insects are to survive as the plants they eat develop defenses against them, they must switch to other foods or evolve ways to circumvent the plants' defenses. They may evolve a way to detoxify a harmful substance, to store it in their bodies out of harm's way, or to avoid its effects in some other manner. Insects quickly come to prefer the plants whose defenses they can circumvent, and they eventually evolve the ability to identify them by their characteristic flavors or odors, or both. As the competition has progressed, fewer and fewer plants have remained as suitable food sources for any one species of insect; species of insects have thus tended to become associated with narrowly defined and often botanically restricted groups of plants.
Q: Which one of the following most accurately expresses the main point of the passage?
Choices:
A.) Due to long-term evolutionary pressures exerted by insects, the secondary substances in plants have become numerous and diverse but tend to be similar among closely related species.
B.) The particular secondary substances possessed by different plants, and thus the distinctive tastes and smells that present-day plants have, result in large part from an evolutionary process of teraction between plants and insects.
C.) Because plant mutations have led to the development of secondary substances, plants have come to participate in a continuing process of competition with plant-eating insects.
D.) Long-term competition between plants and insects has led to a narrowing of the range of secondary substances present in plants and, thus, also to a narrowing of the range of insect species that eat each species of plant.
Answer:

Choices:
- A
- B
- C
- D


Question:
Passage: The characteristic smell or taste of a plant, to insects as well as to humans, depends on its chemical composition. Broadly speaking, plants contain two categories of chemical substances: primary and secondary. The primary substances, such as proteins, carbohydrates, vitamins, and hormones, are required for growth and proper functioning and are found in all plants. The secondary substances are a diverse and multitudinous array of chemicals that have no known role in the internal chemical processes of plants' growth or metabolism. Only a few of these substances occur in any one species of plant, but the same or similar ones tend to occur in related plants such as the various species that constitute a single family. It is these secondary substances that give plants their distinctive tastes and smells. Insects appear to have played a major role in many plants' having the secondary substances they have today. Such substances undoubtedly first appeared, and new ones continue to appear, as the result of genetic mutations in individual plants. But if a mutation is to survive and be passed on to subsequent generations, it must pass the muster of natural selection—that is, it must increase the likelihood of the organism's surviving and reproducing. Some secondary substances are favored by natural selection because they are scents that attract pollinating insects to blossoms. Such scents signal the presence of nectar, which nourishes the insects without damage to the plants. Other secondary substances that arose by mutation were conserved by natural selection because they proved to be biochemical defenses against the enemies of plants, the majority of which are insects. Some of these defensive substances cause insects to suffer unpleasant symptoms or even to die. Still other secondary substances are not in themselves harmful to insects, but are characteristic smells or tastes that dissuade the insect from feeding by warning it of the presence of some other substance that is harmful. For hundreds of millions of years there has been an evolutionary competition for advantage between plants and plant-eating insects. If insects are to survive as the plants they eat develop defenses against them, they must switch to other foods or evolve ways to circumvent the plants' defenses. They may evolve a way to detoxify a harmful substance, to store it in their bodies out of harm's way, or to avoid its effects in some other manner. Insects quickly come to prefer the plants whose defenses they can circumvent, and they eventually evolve the ability to identify them by their characteristic flavors or odors, or both. As the competition has progressed, fewer and fewer plants have remained as suitable food sources for any one species of insect; species of insects have thus tended to become associated with narrowly defined and often botanically restricted groups of plants.
Q: Which one of the following is mentioned in the passage as a way in which insects can adapt when a plant develops defenses against them?
Choices:
A.) to avoid contact with the dangerous parts of the plant
B.) to pollinate other species of plants
C.) to avoid plants with certain distinctive leaf or flower structures
D.) to start eating something else instead
Answer:

Choices:
- A
- B
- C
- D


Question:
Passage: The characteristic smell or taste of a plant, to insects as well as to humans, depends on its chemical composition. Broadly speaking, plants contain two categories of chemical substances: primary and secondary. The primary substances, such as proteins, carbohydrates, vitamins, and hormones, are required for growth and proper functioning and are found in all plants. The secondary substances are a diverse and multitudinous array of chemicals that have no known role in the internal chemical processes of plants' growth or metabolism. Only a few of these substances occur in any one species of plant, but the same or similar ones tend to occur in related plants such as the various species that constitute a single family. It is these secondary substances that give plants their distinctive tastes and smells. Insects appear to have played a major role in many plants' having the secondary substances they have today. Such substances undoubtedly first appeared, and new ones continue to appear, as the result of genetic mutations in individual plants. But if a mutation is to survive and be passed on to subsequent generations, it must pass the muster of natural selection—that is, it must increase the likelihood of the organism's surviving and reproducing. Some secondary substances are favored by natural selection because they are scents that attract pollinating insects to blossoms. Such scents signal the presence of nectar, which nourishes the insects without damage to the plants. Other secondary substances that arose by mutation were conserved by natural selection because they proved to be biochemical defenses against the enemies of plants, the majority of which are insects. Some of these defensive substances cause insects to suffer unpleasant symptoms or even to die. Still other secondary substances are not in themselves harmful to insects, but are characteristic smells or tastes that dissuade the insect from feeding by warning it of the presence of some other substance that is harmful. For hundreds of millions of years there has been an evolutionary competition for advantage between plants and plant-eating insects. If insects are to survive as the plants they eat develop defenses against them, they must switch to other foods or evolve ways to circumvent the plants' defenses. They may evolve a way to detoxify a harmful substance, to store it in their bodies out of harm's way, or to avoid its effects in some other manner. Insects quickly come to prefer the plants whose defenses they can circumvent, and they eventually evolve the ability to identify them by their characteristic flavors or odors, or both. As the competition has progressed, fewer and fewer plants have remained as suitable food sources for any one species of insect; species of insects have thus tended to become associated with narrowly defined and often botanically restricted groups of plants.
Q: In the passage, the author discusses primary substances mainly in order to
Choices:
A.) indicate the great diversity of chemicals that occur in various species of plants
B.) provide evidence of plants' adaptation to insects
C.) provide information about how plants grow and metabolize nutrients
D.) help explain what secondary substances are
Answer:

Choices:
- A
- B
- C
- D


Question:
Passage: The characteristic smell or taste of a plant, to insects as well as to humans, depends on its chemical composition. Broadly speaking, plants contain two categories of chemical substances: primary and secondary. The primary substances, such as proteins, carbohydrates, vitamins, and hormones, are required for growth and proper functioning and are found in all plants. The secondary substances are a diverse and multitudinous array of chemicals that have no known role in the internal chemical processes of plants' growth or metabolism. Only a few of these substances occur in any one species of plant, but the same or similar ones tend to occur in related plants such as the various species that constitute a single family. It is these secondary substances that give plants their distinctive tastes and smells. Insects appear to have played a major role in many plants' having the secondary substances they have today. Such substances undoubtedly first appeared, and new ones continue to appear, as the result of genetic mutations in individual plants. But if a mutation is to survive and be passed on to subsequent generations, it must pass the muster of natural selection—that is, it must increase the likelihood of the organism's surviving and reproducing. Some secondary substances are favored by natural selection because they are scents that attract pollinating insects to blossoms. Such scents signal the presence of nectar, which nourishes the insects without damage to the plants. Other secondary substances that arose by mutation were conserved by natural selection because they proved to be biochemical defenses against the enemies of plants, the majority of which are insects. Some of these defensive substances cause insects to suffer unpleasant symptoms or even to die. Still other secondary substances are not in themselves harmful to insects, but are characteristic smells or tastes that dissuade the insect from feeding by warning it of the presence of some other substance that is harmful. For hundreds of millions of years there has been an evolutionary competition for advantage between plants and plant-eating insects. If insects are to survive as the plants they eat develop defenses against them, they must switch to other foods or evolve ways to circumvent the plants' defenses. They may evolve a way to detoxify a harmful substance, to store it in their bodies out of harm's way, or to avoid its effects in some other manner. Insects quickly come to prefer the plants whose defenses they can circumvent, and they eventually evolve the ability to identify them by their characteristic flavors or odors, or both. As the competition has progressed, fewer and fewer plants have remained as suitable food sources for any one species of insect; species of insects have thus tended to become associated with narrowly defined and often botanically restricted groups of plants.
Q: The passage provides the most support for inferring which one of the following?
Choices:
A.) Some toxic substances that are produced by plants evolved in correlation with secondary substances but are not themselves secondary substances.
B.) Most plants that have evolved chemical defense systems against certain insect species are nevertheless used as food by a wide variety of insects that have evolved ways of circumventing those defenses.
C.) Some chemicals that are not known to be directly involved in the growth or metabolism of any species of plant play vital roles in the lives of various kinds of plants.
D.) Many secondary substances that are toxic to insects are thought by scientists to have evolved independently in various unrelated species of plants but to have survived in only a few species.
Answer:

Choices:
- A
- B
- C
- D


Question:
Passage: The characteristic smell or taste of a plant, to insects as well as to humans, depends on its chemical composition. Broadly speaking, plants contain two categories of chemical substances: primary and secondary. The primary substances, such as proteins, carbohydrates, vitamins, and hormones, are required for growth and proper functioning and are found in all plants. The secondary substances are a diverse and multitudinous array of chemicals that have no known role in the internal chemical processes of plants' growth or metabolism. Only a few of these substances occur in any one species of plant, but the same or similar ones tend to occur in related plants such as the various species that constitute a single family. It is these secondary substances that give plants their distinctive tastes and smells. Insects appear to have played a major role in many plants' having the secondary substances they have today. Such substances undoubtedly first appeared, and new ones continue to appear, as the result of genetic mutations in individual plants. But if a mutation is to survive and be passed on to subsequent generations, it must pass the muster of natural selection—that is, it must increase the likelihood of the organism's surviving and reproducing. Some secondary substances are favored by natural selection because they are scents that attract pollinating insects to blossoms. Such scents signal the presence of nectar, which nourishes the insects without damage to the plants. Other secondary substances that arose by mutation were conserved by natural selection because they proved to be biochemical defenses against the enemies of plants, the majority of which are insects. Some of these defensive substances cause insects to suffer unpleasant symptoms or even to die. Still other secondary substances are not in themselves harmful to insects, but are characteristic smells or tastes that dissuade the insect from feeding by warning it of the presence of some other substance that is harmful. For hundreds of millions of years there has been an evolutionary competition for advantage between plants and plant-eating insects. If insects are to survive as the plants they eat develop defenses against them, they must switch to other foods or evolve ways to circumvent the plants' defenses. They may evolve a way to detoxify a harmful substance, to store it in their bodies out of harm's way, or to avoid its effects in some other manner. Insects quickly come to prefer the plants whose defenses they can circumvent, and they eventually evolve the ability to identify them by their characteristic flavors or odors, or both. As the competition has progressed, fewer and fewer plants have remained as suitable food sources for any one species of insect; species of insects have thus tended to become associated with narrowly defined and often botanically restricted groups of plants.
Q: Which one of the following describes a set of relationships that is most closely analogous to the relationships between plants and their primary and secondary substances?
Choices:
A.) Specially designed word processing programs are necessary for computers to be able to function as word processors; such programs can be stored either in the computers' internal memory system or on external disks that are inserted temporarily into the computers.
B.) Mechanical components such as engines and transmissions are necessary for automobiles to run; features such as paint and taillights give a car its distinctive look and serve functions such as preventing rust and improving safety, but automobiles can run without them.
C.) Mechanical components such as gears and rotors are required for the operation of clothing factories; electrical components such as wires and transformers supply the power needed to run the mechanical components, but they do not participate directly in the manufacturing process.
D.) Some type of braking system is necessary for trains to be able to decelerate and stop; such systems comprise both friction components that directly contact the trains' wheels and pneumatic components that exert pressure on the friction components.
Answer:

Choices:
- A
- B
- C
- D


Question:
Passage: The characteristic smell or taste of a plant, to insects as well as to humans, depends on its chemical composition. Broadly speaking, plants contain two categories of chemical substances: primary and secondary. The primary substances, such as proteins, carbohydrates, vitamins, and hormones, are required for growth and proper functioning and are found in all plants. The secondary substances are a diverse and multitudinous array of chemicals that have no known role in the internal chemical processes of plants' growth or metabolism. Only a few of these substances occur in any one species of plant, but the same or similar ones tend to occur in related plants such as the various species that constitute a single family. It is these secondary substances that give plants their distinctive tastes and smells. Insects appear to have played a major role in many plants' having the secondary substances they have today. Such substances undoubtedly first appeared, and new ones continue to appear, as the result of genetic mutations in individual plants. But if a mutation is to survive and be passed on to subsequent generations, it must pass the muster of natural selection—that is, it must increase the likelihood of the organism's surviving and reproducing. Some secondary substances are favored by natural selection because they are scents that attract pollinating insects to blossoms. Such scents signal the presence of nectar, which nourishes the insects without damage to the plants. Other secondary substances that arose by mutation were conserved by natural selection because they proved to be biochemical defenses against the enemies of plants, the majority of which are insects. Some of these defensive substances cause insects to suffer unpleasant symptoms or even to die. Still other secondary substances are not in themselves harmful to insects, but are characteristic smells or tastes that dissuade the insect from feeding by warning it of the presence of some other substance that is harmful. For hundreds of millions of years there has been an evolutionary competition for advantage between plants and plant-eating insects. If insects are to survive as the plants they eat develop defenses against them, they must switch to other foods or evolve ways to circumvent the plants' defenses. They may evolve a way to detoxify a harmful substance, to store it in their bodies out of harm's way, or to avoid its effects in some other manner. Insects quickly come to prefer the plants whose defenses they can circumvent, and they eventually evolve the ability to identify them by their characteristic flavors or odors, or both. As the competition has progressed, fewer and fewer plants have remained as suitable food sources for any one species of insect; species of insects have thus tended to become associated with narrowly defined and often botanically restricted groups of plants.
Q: The passage most strongly suggests that which one of the following is true of secondary substances in plants?
Choices:
A.) Some species of plants produce only one such substance.
B.) They typically contribute to a plant's taste or smell, but not both.
C.) Some of them are the results of recent natural mutations in plants.
D.) Some of them undergo chemical reactions with substances produced by insects, thus altering the plants' chemical composition.
Answer:

Choices:
- A
- B
- C
- D


Question:
Passage: The characteristic smell or taste of a plant, to insects as well as to humans, depends on its chemical composition. Broadly speaking, plants contain two categories of chemical substances: primary and secondary. The primary substances, such as proteins, carbohydrates, vitamins, and hormones, are required for growth and proper functioning and are found in all plants. The secondary substances are a diverse and multitudinous array of chemicals that have no known role in the internal chemical processes of plants' growth or metabolism. Only a few of these substances occur in any one species of plant, but the same or similar ones tend to occur in related plants such as the various species that constitute a single family. It is these secondary substances that give plants their distinctive tastes and smells. Insects appear to have played a major role in many plants' having the secondary substances they have today. Such substances undoubtedly first appeared, and new ones continue to appear, as the result of genetic mutations in individual plants. But if a mutation is to survive and be passed on to subsequent generations, it must pass the muster of natural selection—that is, it must increase the likelihood of the organism's surviving and reproducing. Some secondary substances are favored by natural selection because they are scents that attract pollinating insects to blossoms. Such scents signal the presence of nectar, which nourishes the insects without damage to the plants. Other secondary substances that arose by mutation were conserved by natural selection because they proved to be biochemical defenses against the enemies of plants, the majority of which are insects. Some of these defensive substances cause insects to suffer unpleasant symptoms or even to die. Still other secondary substances are not in themselves harmful to insects, but are characteristic smells or tastes that dissuade the insect from feeding by warning it of the presence of some other substance that is harmful. For hundreds of millions of years there has been an evolutionary competition for advantage between plants and plant-eating insects. If insects are to survive as the plants they eat develop defenses against them, they must switch to other foods or evolve ways to circumvent the plants' defenses. They may evolve a way to detoxify a harmful substance, to store it in their bodies out of harm's way, or to avoid its effects in some other manner. Insects quickly come to prefer the plants whose defenses they can circumvent, and they eventually evolve the ability to identify them by their characteristic flavors or odors, or both. As the competition has progressed, fewer and fewer plants have remained as suitable food sources for any one species of insect; species of insects have thus tended to become associated with narrowly defined and often botanically restricted groups of plants.
Q: Based on the passage, the author would be most likely to agree with which one of the following statements about the relationship between plants and insects?
Choices:
A.) While many species of insects have evolved ways of circumventing plants' chemical defenses, none has done this through outright immunity to plants' secondary substances.
B.) Throughout the process of evolutionary change, the number of plant species within each family has generally increased while the number of families of plants has decreased.
C.) No particular secondary substance has appeared in plants in direct response to insects, though in many instances insects have influenced which particular secondary substances are present in a plant species.
D.) The diversity of secondary substances that develop in a plant population is proportional to the number of insects with which that plant population has interacted throughout its evolutionary history.
Answer:

Choices:
- A
- B
- C
- D


Question:
Passage: David Warsh's book describes a great contradiction inherent in economic theory since 1776, when Adam Smith published The Wealth of Nations. Warsh calls it the struggle between the Pin Factory and the Invisible Hand. Using the example of a pin factory, Smith emphasized the huge increases in efficiency that could be achieved through increased size. The pin factory's employees, by specializing on narrow tasks, produce far more than they could if each worked independently. Also, Smith was the first to recognize how a market economy can harness self-interest to the common good, leading each individual as though "by an invisible hand to promote an end which was no part of his intention." For example, businesses sell products that people want, at reasonable prices, not because the business owners inherently want to please people but because doing so enables them to make money in a competitive marketplace. These two concepts, however, are opposed to each other. The parable of the pin factory says that there are increasing returns to scale—the bigger the pin factory, the more specialized its workers can be, and therefore the more pins the factory can produce per worker. But increasing returns create a natural tendency toward monopoly, because a large business can achieve larger scale and hence lower costs than a small business. So given increasing returns, bigger firms tend to drive smaller firms out of business, until each industry is dominated by just a few players. But for the invisible hand to work properly, there must be many competitors in each industry, so that nobody can exert monopoly power. Therefore, the idea that free markets always get it right depends on the assumption that returns to scale are diminishing, not increasing. For almost two centuries, the assumption of diminishing returns dominated economic theory, with the Pin Factory de-emphasized. Why? As Warsh explains, it wasn't about ideology; it was about following the line of least mathematical resistance. Economics has always had scientific aspirations; economists have always sought the rigor and clarity that comes from representing their ideas using numbers and equations. And the economics of diminishing returns lend themselves readily to elegant formalism, while those of increasing returns-the Pin Factory- are notoriously hard to represent mathematically. Many economists tried repeatedly to bring the Pin Factory into the mainstream of economic thought to reflect the fact that increasing returns obviously characterized many enterprises, such as railroads. Yet they repeatedly failed because they could not state their ideas rigorously enough. Only since the late 1970s has this "underground river" -a term used to describe the role of increasing returns in economic thought-surfaced into the mainstream of economic thought. By then, economists had finally found ways to describe the Pin Factory with the rigor needed to make it respectable.
Q: Which one of the following most accurately expresses the main point of the passage?
Choices:
A.) Economists have, until somewhat recently, failed to account for the increasing returns to scale common in many industries.
B.) The functioning of the Invisible Hand is accepted primarily because diminishing returns can be described with mathematical rigor.
C.) Adam Smith was the first economist to understand how a market economy can enable individual self-interest to serve the common good.
D.) Mainstream economists have always assumed that returns to scale are generally increasing rather than decreasing.
Answer:

Choices:
- A
- B
- C
- D


Question:
Passage: David Warsh's book describes a great contradiction inherent in economic theory since 1776, when Adam Smith published The Wealth of Nations. Warsh calls it the struggle between the Pin Factory and the Invisible Hand. Using the example of a pin factory, Smith emphasized the huge increases in efficiency that could be achieved through increased size. The pin factory's employees, by specializing on narrow tasks, produce far more than they could if each worked independently. Also, Smith was the first to recognize how a market economy can harness self-interest to the common good, leading each individual as though "by an invisible hand to promote an end which was no part of his intention." For example, businesses sell products that people want, at reasonable prices, not because the business owners inherently want to please people but because doing so enables them to make money in a competitive marketplace. These two concepts, however, are opposed to each other. The parable of the pin factory says that there are increasing returns to scale—the bigger the pin factory, the more specialized its workers can be, and therefore the more pins the factory can produce per worker. But increasing returns create a natural tendency toward monopoly, because a large business can achieve larger scale and hence lower costs than a small business. So given increasing returns, bigger firms tend to drive smaller firms out of business, until each industry is dominated by just a few players. But for the invisible hand to work properly, there must be many competitors in each industry, so that nobody can exert monopoly power. Therefore, the idea that free markets always get it right depends on the assumption that returns to scale are diminishing, not increasing. For almost two centuries, the assumption of diminishing returns dominated economic theory, with the Pin Factory de-emphasized. Why? As Warsh explains, it wasn't about ideology; it was about following the line of least mathematical resistance. Economics has always had scientific aspirations; economists have always sought the rigor and clarity that comes from representing their ideas using numbers and equations. And the economics of diminishing returns lend themselves readily to elegant formalism, while those of increasing returns-the Pin Factory- are notoriously hard to represent mathematically. Many economists tried repeatedly to bring the Pin Factory into the mainstream of economic thought to reflect the fact that increasing returns obviously characterized many enterprises, such as railroads. Yet they repeatedly failed because they could not state their ideas rigorously enough. Only since the late 1970s has this "underground river" -a term used to describe the role of increasing returns in economic thought-surfaced into the mainstream of economic thought. By then, economists had finally found ways to describe the Pin Factory with the rigor needed to make it respectable.
Q: The author's attitude towards the idea that the Pin Factory model should be part of the mainstream of economic thought could most accurately be described as one of
Choices:
A.) receptivity
B.) indifference
C.) uncertainty
D.) hostility
Answer:

Choices:
- A
- B
- C
- D


Question:
Passage: David Warsh's book describes a great contradiction inherent in economic theory since 1776, when Adam Smith published The Wealth of Nations. Warsh calls it the struggle between the Pin Factory and the Invisible Hand. Using the example of a pin factory, Smith emphasized the huge increases in efficiency that could be achieved through increased size. The pin factory's employees, by specializing on narrow tasks, produce far more than they could if each worked independently. Also, Smith was the first to recognize how a market economy can harness self-interest to the common good, leading each individual as though "by an invisible hand to promote an end which was no part of his intention." For example, businesses sell products that people want, at reasonable prices, not because the business owners inherently want to please people but because doing so enables them to make money in a competitive marketplace. These two concepts, however, are opposed to each other. The parable of the pin factory says that there are increasing returns to scale—the bigger the pin factory, the more specialized its workers can be, and therefore the more pins the factory can produce per worker. But increasing returns create a natural tendency toward monopoly, because a large business can achieve larger scale and hence lower costs than a small business. So given increasing returns, bigger firms tend to drive smaller firms out of business, until each industry is dominated by just a few players. But for the invisible hand to work properly, there must be many competitors in each industry, so that nobody can exert monopoly power. Therefore, the idea that free markets always get it right depends on the assumption that returns to scale are diminishing, not increasing. For almost two centuries, the assumption of diminishing returns dominated economic theory, with the Pin Factory de-emphasized. Why? As Warsh explains, it wasn't about ideology; it was about following the line of least mathematical resistance. Economics has always had scientific aspirations; economists have always sought the rigor and clarity that comes from representing their ideas using numbers and equations. And the economics of diminishing returns lend themselves readily to elegant formalism, while those of increasing returns-the Pin Factory- are notoriously hard to represent mathematically. Many economists tried repeatedly to bring the Pin Factory into the mainstream of economic thought to reflect the fact that increasing returns obviously characterized many enterprises, such as railroads. Yet they repeatedly failed because they could not state their ideas rigorously enough. Only since the late 1970s has this "underground river" -a term used to describe the role of increasing returns in economic thought-surfaced into the mainstream of economic thought. By then, economists had finally found ways to describe the Pin Factory with the rigor needed to make it respectable.
Q: The main purpose of the fourth paragraph is to
Choices:
A.) describe the tensions resulting from attempts to model two competing economic assumptions
B.) explain a difficulty associated with modeling a particular economic assumption
C.) critique a theory purporting to resolve the tensions between two economic assumptions
D.) refute an argument against a particular economic assumption
Answer:

Choices:
- A
- B
- C
- D


Question:
Passage: David Warsh's book describes a great contradiction inherent in economic theory since 1776, when Adam Smith published The Wealth of Nations. Warsh calls it the struggle between the Pin Factory and the Invisible Hand. Using the example of a pin factory, Smith emphasized the huge increases in efficiency that could be achieved through increased size. The pin factory's employees, by specializing on narrow tasks, produce far more than they could if each worked independently. Also, Smith was the first to recognize how a market economy can harness self-interest to the common good, leading each individual as though "by an invisible hand to promote an end which was no part of his intention." For example, businesses sell products that people want, at reasonable prices, not because the business owners inherently want to please people but because doing so enables them to make money in a competitive marketplace. These two concepts, however, are opposed to each other. The parable of the pin factory says that there are increasing returns to scale—the bigger the pin factory, the more specialized its workers can be, and therefore the more pins the factory can produce per worker. But increasing returns create a natural tendency toward monopoly, because a large business can achieve larger scale and hence lower costs than a small business. So given increasing returns, bigger firms tend to drive smaller firms out of business, until each industry is dominated by just a few players. But for the invisible hand to work properly, there must be many competitors in each industry, so that nobody can exert monopoly power. Therefore, the idea that free markets always get it right depends on the assumption that returns to scale are diminishing, not increasing. For almost two centuries, the assumption of diminishing returns dominated economic theory, with the Pin Factory de-emphasized. Why? As Warsh explains, it wasn't about ideology; it was about following the line of least mathematical resistance. Economics has always had scientific aspirations; economists have always sought the rigor and clarity that comes from representing their ideas using numbers and equations. And the economics of diminishing returns lend themselves readily to elegant formalism, while those of increasing returns-the Pin Factory- are notoriously hard to represent mathematically. Many economists tried repeatedly to bring the Pin Factory into the mainstream of economic thought to reflect the fact that increasing returns obviously characterized many enterprises, such as railroads. Yet they repeatedly failed because they could not state their ideas rigorously enough. Only since the late 1970s has this "underground river" -a term used to describe the role of increasing returns in economic thought-surfaced into the mainstream of economic thought. By then, economists had finally found ways to describe the Pin Factory with the rigor needed to make it respectable.
Q: It can be inferred from the passage that the Pin Factory model would continue to be an "underground river" (line 54) were it not for
Choices:
A.) a lowering of the standards used by economists to assess economic models
B.) the fact that economics has always been a discipline with scientific aspirations
C.) David Warsh's analysis of the work of Adam Smith
D.) economists' success in representing the Pin Factory model with mathematical rigor
Answer:

Choices:
- A
- B
- C
- D


Question:
Passage: David Warsh's book describes a great contradiction inherent in economic theory since 1776, when Adam Smith published The Wealth of Nations. Warsh calls it the struggle between the Pin Factory and the Invisible Hand. Using the example of a pin factory, Smith emphasized the huge increases in efficiency that could be achieved through increased size. The pin factory's employees, by specializing on narrow tasks, produce far more than they could if each worked independently. Also, Smith was the first to recognize how a market economy can harness self-interest to the common good, leading each individual as though "by an invisible hand to promote an end which was no part of his intention." For example, businesses sell products that people want, at reasonable prices, not because the business owners inherently want to please people but because doing so enables them to make money in a competitive marketplace. These two concepts, however, are opposed to each other. The parable of the pin factory says that there are increasing returns to scale—the bigger the pin factory, the more specialized its workers can be, and therefore the more pins the factory can produce per worker. But increasing returns create a natural tendency toward monopoly, because a large business can achieve larger scale and hence lower costs than a small business. So given increasing returns, bigger firms tend to drive smaller firms out of business, until each industry is dominated by just a few players. But for the invisible hand to work properly, there must be many competitors in each industry, so that nobody can exert monopoly power. Therefore, the idea that free markets always get it right depends on the assumption that returns to scale are diminishing, not increasing. For almost two centuries, the assumption of diminishing returns dominated economic theory, with the Pin Factory de-emphasized. Why? As Warsh explains, it wasn't about ideology; it was about following the line of least mathematical resistance. Economics has always had scientific aspirations; economists have always sought the rigor and clarity that comes from representing their ideas using numbers and equations. And the economics of diminishing returns lend themselves readily to elegant formalism, while those of increasing returns-the Pin Factory- are notoriously hard to represent mathematically. Many economists tried repeatedly to bring the Pin Factory into the mainstream of economic thought to reflect the fact that increasing returns obviously characterized many enterprises, such as railroads. Yet they repeatedly failed because they could not state their ideas rigorously enough. Only since the late 1970s has this "underground river" -a term used to describe the role of increasing returns in economic thought-surfaced into the mainstream of economic thought. By then, economists had finally found ways to describe the Pin Factory with the rigor needed to make it respectable.
Q: The reference to railroads (line 51) serves to
Choices:
A.) illustrate the difficulty of stating the concept of the Pin Factory with mathematical rigor
B.) point to an industry that illustrates the shortcomings of economists' emphasis on the Invisible Hand
C.) present an example of the high levels of competition achieved in transportation industries
D.) resolve an ambiguity inherent in the metaphor of the Invisible Hand
Answer:

Choices:
- A
- B
- C
- D


Question:
Passage: David Warsh's book describes a great contradiction inherent in economic theory since 1776, when Adam Smith published The Wealth of Nations. Warsh calls it the struggle between the Pin Factory and the Invisible Hand. Using the example of a pin factory, Smith emphasized the huge increases in efficiency that could be achieved through increased size. The pin factory's employees, by specializing on narrow tasks, produce far more than they could if each worked independently. Also, Smith was the first to recognize how a market economy can harness self-interest to the common good, leading each individual as though "by an invisible hand to promote an end which was no part of his intention." For example, businesses sell products that people want, at reasonable prices, not because the business owners inherently want to please people but because doing so enables them to make money in a competitive marketplace. These two concepts, however, are opposed to each other. The parable of the pin factory says that there are increasing returns to scale—the bigger the pin factory, the more specialized its workers can be, and therefore the more pins the factory can produce per worker. But increasing returns create a natural tendency toward monopoly, because a large business can achieve larger scale and hence lower costs than a small business. So given increasing returns, bigger firms tend to drive smaller firms out of business, until each industry is dominated by just a few players. But for the invisible hand to work properly, there must be many competitors in each industry, so that nobody can exert monopoly power. Therefore, the idea that free markets always get it right depends on the assumption that returns to scale are diminishing, not increasing. For almost two centuries, the assumption of diminishing returns dominated economic theory, with the Pin Factory de-emphasized. Why? As Warsh explains, it wasn't about ideology; it was about following the line of least mathematical resistance. Economics has always had scientific aspirations; economists have always sought the rigor and clarity that comes from representing their ideas using numbers and equations. And the economics of diminishing returns lend themselves readily to elegant formalism, while those of increasing returns-the Pin Factory- are notoriously hard to represent mathematically. Many economists tried repeatedly to bring the Pin Factory into the mainstream of economic thought to reflect the fact that increasing returns obviously characterized many enterprises, such as railroads. Yet they repeatedly failed because they could not state their ideas rigorously enough. Only since the late 1970s has this "underground river" -a term used to describe the role of increasing returns in economic thought-surfaced into the mainstream of economic thought. By then, economists had finally found ways to describe the Pin Factory with the rigor needed to make it respectable.
Q: Which one of the following best illustrates the concept of increasing returns to scale described in the second paragraph of the passage?
Choices:
A.) A publishing house is able to greatly improve the productivity of its editors by relaxing the standards to which those editors must adhere. This allows the publishing house to employ many fewer editors.
B.) A school district increases the total number of students that can be accommodated in a single building by switching to year-round operation, with a different quarter of its student body on vacation at any given time.
C.) The lobster industry as a whole is able to catch substantially more lobsters a day with the same number of traps because advances in technology make the doors to the traps easier for lobsters to get through.
D.) A large bee colony is able to use some bees solely to guard its nectar sources. This enables the colony to collect more nectar, which can feed a larger colony that can better divide up the work of processing the nectar.
Answer:

Choices:
- A
- B
- C
- D


Question:
Passage: David Warsh's book describes a great contradiction inherent in economic theory since 1776, when Adam Smith published The Wealth of Nations. Warsh calls it the struggle between the Pin Factory and the Invisible Hand. Using the example of a pin factory, Smith emphasized the huge increases in efficiency that could be achieved through increased size. The pin factory's employees, by specializing on narrow tasks, produce far more than they could if each worked independently. Also, Smith was the first to recognize how a market economy can harness self-interest to the common good, leading each individual as though "by an invisible hand to promote an end which was no part of his intention." For example, businesses sell products that people want, at reasonable prices, not because the business owners inherently want to please people but because doing so enables them to make money in a competitive marketplace. These two concepts, however, are opposed to each other. The parable of the pin factory says that there are increasing returns to scale—the bigger the pin factory, the more specialized its workers can be, and therefore the more pins the factory can produce per worker. But increasing returns create a natural tendency toward monopoly, because a large business can achieve larger scale and hence lower costs than a small business. So given increasing returns, bigger firms tend to drive smaller firms out of business, until each industry is dominated by just a few players. But for the invisible hand to work properly, there must be many competitors in each industry, so that nobody can exert monopoly power. Therefore, the idea that free markets always get it right depends on the assumption that returns to scale are diminishing, not increasing. For almost two centuries, the assumption of diminishing returns dominated economic theory, with the Pin Factory de-emphasized. Why? As Warsh explains, it wasn't about ideology; it was about following the line of least mathematical resistance. Economics has always had scientific aspirations; economists have always sought the rigor and clarity that comes from representing their ideas using numbers and equations. And the economics of diminishing returns lend themselves readily to elegant formalism, while those of increasing returns-the Pin Factory- are notoriously hard to represent mathematically. Many economists tried repeatedly to bring the Pin Factory into the mainstream of economic thought to reflect the fact that increasing returns obviously characterized many enterprises, such as railroads. Yet they repeatedly failed because they could not state their ideas rigorously enough. Only since the late 1970s has this "underground river" -a term used to describe the role of increasing returns in economic thought-surfaced into the mainstream of economic thought. By then, economists had finally found ways to describe the Pin Factory with the rigor needed to make it respectable.
Q: The passage states which one of the following?
Choices:
A.) The Pin Factory model's long-standing failure to gain prominence among economists was not a problem of ideology.
B.) Economics fails in its quest to be scientific because its models lack mathematical rigor.
C.) The only way that increasing returns to scale could occur is through increases in the specialization of workers.
D.) Adam Smith did not recognize any tension between the Pin Factory model and the Invisible Hand model.
Answer:

Choices:
- A
- B
- C
- D


Question:
Passage: David Warsh's book describes a great contradiction inherent in economic theory since 1776, when Adam Smith published The Wealth of Nations. Warsh calls it the struggle between the Pin Factory and the Invisible Hand. Using the example of a pin factory, Smith emphasized the huge increases in efficiency that could be achieved through increased size. The pin factory's employees, by specializing on narrow tasks, produce far more than they could if each worked independently. Also, Smith was the first to recognize how a market economy can harness self-interest to the common good, leading each individual as though "by an invisible hand to promote an end which was no part of his intention." For example, businesses sell products that people want, at reasonable prices, not because the business owners inherently want to please people but because doing so enables them to make money in a competitive marketplace. These two concepts, however, are opposed to each other. The parable of the pin factory says that there are increasing returns to scale—the bigger the pin factory, the more specialized its workers can be, and therefore the more pins the factory can produce per worker. But increasing returns create a natural tendency toward monopoly, because a large business can achieve larger scale and hence lower costs than a small business. So given increasing returns, bigger firms tend to drive smaller firms out of business, until each industry is dominated by just a few players. But for the invisible hand to work properly, there must be many competitors in each industry, so that nobody can exert monopoly power. Therefore, the idea that free markets always get it right depends on the assumption that returns to scale are diminishing, not increasing. For almost two centuries, the assumption of diminishing returns dominated economic theory, with the Pin Factory de-emphasized. Why? As Warsh explains, it wasn't about ideology; it was about following the line of least mathematical resistance. Economics has always had scientific aspirations; economists have always sought the rigor and clarity that comes from representing their ideas using numbers and equations. And the economics of diminishing returns lend themselves readily to elegant formalism, while those of increasing returns-the Pin Factory- are notoriously hard to represent mathematically. Many economists tried repeatedly to bring the Pin Factory into the mainstream of economic thought to reflect the fact that increasing returns obviously characterized many enterprises, such as railroads. Yet they repeatedly failed because they could not state their ideas rigorously enough. Only since the late 1970s has this "underground river" -a term used to describe the role of increasing returns in economic thought-surfaced into the mainstream of economic thought. By then, economists had finally found ways to describe the Pin Factory with the rigor needed to make it respectable.
Q: Which one of the following, if true, would most undermine the connection that the author draws between increased size and monopoly power?
Choices:
A.) In some industries, there are businesses that are able to exert monopoly power in one geographical region even though there are larger businesses in the same industry in other regions.
B.) The size that a business must reach in order to begin to achieve increasing returns to scale varies widely from industry to industry.
C.) If a business has very specialized workers, any gains in productivity achieved by making workers even more specialized are offset by other factors such as higher training costs and increased turnover.
D.) As the tasks workers focus on become narrower, the workers are not able to command as high a salary as when they were performing a greater variety of tasks.
Answer:

Choices:
- A
- B
- C
- D


Question:
Passage: Passage A Law enforcement agencies can effectively nullify particular laws, or particular applications of law, simply by declining to prosecute violators. This power appears to be exercised frequently and I attempt here to explain why. Rules of law are almost always overinclusive: read literally, they forbid some conduct that the legislature that formulated the rule did not want to forbid. The costs of precisely tailoring a rule to the conduct intended to be forbidden would be prohibitive given the limitations of human foresight and the inherent ambiguities of language. The more particularly the legislature tries to describe the forbidden conduct, the more loopholes it will create. Enforcing an overinclusive rule to the letter could impose very heavy social costs. The effect would be like punishing an innocent person in order to reduce the probability of acquitting a guilty one. Of course, the danger of punishing the innocent is not a decisive blow against the use of a particular method of law enforcement; the danger must be traded off against the costs of alternative methods that would reduce it. But there is a technique-discretionary nonenforcement-by which the costs of overinclusion can be reduced without a corresponding increase in underinclusion (loopholes). Of course, allowing discretionary nonenforcement does not determine the principle by which the law enforcement agency will select its cases. Conceivably the agency could concentrate its resources on those areas of conduct that had been brought inadvertently within the scope of the rule. But this seems unlikely. Capricious enforcement is not unknown (or even rare) but it does not appear to be the central tendency since legislative oversight assures that the agency does not stray too far from the intended, as distinct from the enacted, regulation being enforced. Passage B The newspaper reported that 231,000 water customers in the city are late paying their bills-some by months, others by decades. In all, these water delinquents owe the city more than $625 million in overdue bills and penalties. So officials are planning to selectively cut the water to a few residences with outstanding bills to show that they are serious about collecting those debts. Officials plan to target only high-income neighborhoods, to make examples of a few privileged residents who will be in no position to complain since they were caught stiffing the system. But property owners are responsible for water bills. So why not just do what every other property-related creditor or tax authority does-attach a lien to the property? The money owed would automatically be available whenever a property was sold, and the threat of negative credit implications would be a powerful incentive to keep current with one's water obligations. Well, here's an answer: a loophole prohibits debts other than taxes from being subject to liens by the city, and, technically, water charges are not taxes. But if the problem is with the law, then why not change the law? Wouldn't that be easier, and politically smarter, than shutting off people's water?
Q: Both passages explicitly mention which one of the following?
Choices:
A.) language
B.) legal technicalities
C.) overinclusive laws
D.) loopholes
Answer:

Choices:
- A
- B
- C
- D


Question:
Passage: Passage A Law enforcement agencies can effectively nullify particular laws, or particular applications of law, simply by declining to prosecute violators. This power appears to be exercised frequently and I attempt here to explain why. Rules of law are almost always overinclusive: read literally, they forbid some conduct that the legislature that formulated the rule did not want to forbid. The costs of precisely tailoring a rule to the conduct intended to be forbidden would be prohibitive given the limitations of human foresight and the inherent ambiguities of language. The more particularly the legislature tries to describe the forbidden conduct, the more loopholes it will create. Enforcing an overinclusive rule to the letter could impose very heavy social costs. The effect would be like punishing an innocent person in order to reduce the probability of acquitting a guilty one. Of course, the danger of punishing the innocent is not a decisive blow against the use of a particular method of law enforcement; the danger must be traded off against the costs of alternative methods that would reduce it. But there is a technique-discretionary nonenforcement-by which the costs of overinclusion can be reduced without a corresponding increase in underinclusion (loopholes). Of course, allowing discretionary nonenforcement does not determine the principle by which the law enforcement agency will select its cases. Conceivably the agency could concentrate its resources on those areas of conduct that had been brought inadvertently within the scope of the rule. But this seems unlikely. Capricious enforcement is not unknown (or even rare) but it does not appear to be the central tendency since legislative oversight assures that the agency does not stray too far from the intended, as distinct from the enacted, regulation being enforced. Passage B The newspaper reported that 231,000 water customers in the city are late paying their bills-some by months, others by decades. In all, these water delinquents owe the city more than $625 million in overdue bills and penalties. So officials are planning to selectively cut the water to a few residences with outstanding bills to show that they are serious about collecting those debts. Officials plan to target only high-income neighborhoods, to make examples of a few privileged residents who will be in no position to complain since they were caught stiffing the system. But property owners are responsible for water bills. So why not just do what every other property-related creditor or tax authority does-attach a lien to the property? The money owed would automatically be available whenever a property was sold, and the threat of negative credit implications would be a powerful incentive to keep current with one's water obligations. Well, here's an answer: a loophole prohibits debts other than taxes from being subject to liens by the city, and, technically, water charges are not taxes. But if the problem is with the law, then why not change the law? Wouldn't that be easier, and politically smarter, than shutting off people's water?
Q: Which one of the following statements can be inferred from the material in passage B?
Choices:
A.) Most of the residences with outstanding water bills are in the city's high-income neighborhoods.
B.) Most water customers in the city are late paying their water bills.
C.) In recent years,the city has rarely, if ever, turned off the water of customers who were late paying their water bills.
D.) The only reasonable solution to the problem of overdue water bills in the city is to enact a law that classifies water bills as taxes.
Answer:

Choices:
- A
- B
- C
- D


Question:
Passage: Passage A Law enforcement agencies can effectively nullify particular laws, or particular applications of law, simply by declining to prosecute violators. This power appears to be exercised frequently and I attempt here to explain why. Rules of law are almost always overinclusive: read literally, they forbid some conduct that the legislature that formulated the rule did not want to forbid. The costs of precisely tailoring a rule to the conduct intended to be forbidden would be prohibitive given the limitations of human foresight and the inherent ambiguities of language. The more particularly the legislature tries to describe the forbidden conduct, the more loopholes it will create. Enforcing an overinclusive rule to the letter could impose very heavy social costs. The effect would be like punishing an innocent person in order to reduce the probability of acquitting a guilty one. Of course, the danger of punishing the innocent is not a decisive blow against the use of a particular method of law enforcement; the danger must be traded off against the costs of alternative methods that would reduce it. But there is a technique-discretionary nonenforcement-by which the costs of overinclusion can be reduced without a corresponding increase in underinclusion (loopholes). Of course, allowing discretionary nonenforcement does not determine the principle by which the law enforcement agency will select its cases. Conceivably the agency could concentrate its resources on those areas of conduct that had been brought inadvertently within the scope of the rule. But this seems unlikely. Capricious enforcement is not unknown (or even rare) but it does not appear to be the central tendency since legislative oversight assures that the agency does not stray too far from the intended, as distinct from the enacted, regulation being enforced. Passage B The newspaper reported that 231,000 water customers in the city are late paying their bills-some by months, others by decades. In all, these water delinquents owe the city more than $625 million in overdue bills and penalties. So officials are planning to selectively cut the water to a few residences with outstanding bills to show that they are serious about collecting those debts. Officials plan to target only high-income neighborhoods, to make examples of a few privileged residents who will be in no position to complain since they were caught stiffing the system. But property owners are responsible for water bills. So why not just do what every other property-related creditor or tax authority does-attach a lien to the property? The money owed would automatically be available whenever a property was sold, and the threat of negative credit implications would be a powerful incentive to keep current with one's water obligations. Well, here's an answer: a loophole prohibits debts other than taxes from being subject to liens by the city, and, technically, water charges are not taxes. But if the problem is with the law, then why not change the law? Wouldn't that be easier, and politically smarter, than shutting off people's water?
Q: The role of the word "selectively" in passage B (line 42) is most closely related to the role of which one of the following words in passage A?
Choices:
A.) "discretionary" (line 23)
B.) "particularly" (line 12)
C.) "probability" (line 17)
D.) "alternative" (line 22)
Answer:

Choices:
- A
- B
- C
- D


Question:
Passage: Passage A Law enforcement agencies can effectively nullify particular laws, or particular applications of law, simply by declining to prosecute violators. This power appears to be exercised frequently and I attempt here to explain why. Rules of law are almost always overinclusive: read literally, they forbid some conduct that the legislature that formulated the rule did not want to forbid. The costs of precisely tailoring a rule to the conduct intended to be forbidden would be prohibitive given the limitations of human foresight and the inherent ambiguities of language. The more particularly the legislature tries to describe the forbidden conduct, the more loopholes it will create. Enforcing an overinclusive rule to the letter could impose very heavy social costs. The effect would be like punishing an innocent person in order to reduce the probability of acquitting a guilty one. Of course, the danger of punishing the innocent is not a decisive blow against the use of a particular method of law enforcement; the danger must be traded off against the costs of alternative methods that would reduce it. But there is a technique-discretionary nonenforcement-by which the costs of overinclusion can be reduced without a corresponding increase in underinclusion (loopholes). Of course, allowing discretionary nonenforcement does not determine the principle by which the law enforcement agency will select its cases. Conceivably the agency could concentrate its resources on those areas of conduct that had been brought inadvertently within the scope of the rule. But this seems unlikely. Capricious enforcement is not unknown (or even rare) but it does not appear to be the central tendency since legislative oversight assures that the agency does not stray too far from the intended, as distinct from the enacted, regulation being enforced. Passage B The newspaper reported that 231,000 water customers in the city are late paying their bills-some by months, others by decades. In all, these water delinquents owe the city more than $625 million in overdue bills and penalties. So officials are planning to selectively cut the water to a few residences with outstanding bills to show that they are serious about collecting those debts. Officials plan to target only high-income neighborhoods, to make examples of a few privileged residents who will be in no position to complain since they were caught stiffing the system. But property owners are responsible for water bills. So why not just do what every other property-related creditor or tax authority does-attach a lien to the property? The money owed would automatically be available whenever a property was sold, and the threat of negative credit implications would be a powerful incentive to keep current with one's water obligations. Well, here's an answer: a loophole prohibits debts other than taxes from being subject to liens by the city, and, technically, water charges are not taxes. But if the problem is with the law, then why not change the law? Wouldn't that be easier, and politically smarter, than shutting off people's water?
Q: The author of passage A would be most likely to agree with which one of the following statements concerning the plan described in lines 41-47 in passage B?
Choices:
A.) A better plan would have been to place liens on the properties owned by those who are late paying their bills.
B.) Officials should not implement the plan until just after the legislature's annual appropriations hearing.
C.) The plan is a reasonable response to the water department's history of enforcing overinclusive rules to the letter.
D.) At least the plan would have a lower social cost than would turning off the water of all 231,000 households that have not paid on time.
Answer:

Choices:
- A
- B
- C
- D


Question:
Passage: Passage A Law enforcement agencies can effectively nullify particular laws, or particular applications of law, simply by declining to prosecute violators. This power appears to be exercised frequently and I attempt here to explain why. Rules of law are almost always overinclusive: read literally, they forbid some conduct that the legislature that formulated the rule did not want to forbid. The costs of precisely tailoring a rule to the conduct intended to be forbidden would be prohibitive given the limitations of human foresight and the inherent ambiguities of language. The more particularly the legislature tries to describe the forbidden conduct, the more loopholes it will create. Enforcing an overinclusive rule to the letter could impose very heavy social costs. The effect would be like punishing an innocent person in order to reduce the probability of acquitting a guilty one. Of course, the danger of punishing the innocent is not a decisive blow against the use of a particular method of law enforcement; the danger must be traded off against the costs of alternative methods that would reduce it. But there is a technique-discretionary nonenforcement-by which the costs of overinclusion can be reduced without a corresponding increase in underinclusion (loopholes). Of course, allowing discretionary nonenforcement does not determine the principle by which the law enforcement agency will select its cases. Conceivably the agency could concentrate its resources on those areas of conduct that had been brought inadvertently within the scope of the rule. But this seems unlikely. Capricious enforcement is not unknown (or even rare) but it does not appear to be the central tendency since legislative oversight assures that the agency does not stray too far from the intended, as distinct from the enacted, regulation being enforced. Passage B The newspaper reported that 231,000 water customers in the city are late paying their bills-some by months, others by decades. In all, these water delinquents owe the city more than $625 million in overdue bills and penalties. So officials are planning to selectively cut the water to a few residences with outstanding bills to show that they are serious about collecting those debts. Officials plan to target only high-income neighborhoods, to make examples of a few privileged residents who will be in no position to complain since they were caught stiffing the system. But property owners are responsible for water bills. So why not just do what every other property-related creditor or tax authority does-attach a lien to the property? The money owed would automatically be available whenever a property was sold, and the threat of negative credit implications would be a powerful incentive to keep current with one's water obligations. Well, here's an answer: a loophole prohibits debts other than taxes from being subject to liens by the city, and, technically, water charges are not taxes. But if the problem is with the law, then why not change the law? Wouldn't that be easier, and politically smarter, than shutting off people's water?
Q: Passage A suggests that an instance of "capricious enforcement" (line 32) most likely involves
Choices:
A.) not following the intent of the legislature in enforcing the law
B.) prioritizing enforcement of the law according to the amount of damage caused by the crimes
C.) enforcing the law only to the degree that municipal resources make possible
D.) enforcing the law according to the legislature's intent in passing the laws
Answer:

Choices:
- A
- B
- C
- D


Question:
Passage: An organism is considered to have an infection when a disease-causing agent, called a pathogen, establishes a viable presence in the organism. This can occur only if the pathogenic agent is able to reproduce itself in the host organism. The only agents believed until recently to be responsible for infections—viruses, bacteria, fungi, and parasites—reproduce and regulate their other life processes by means of genetic material, composed of nucleic acid (DNA or RNA). It was thus widely assumed that all pathogens contain such genetic material in their cellular structure. This assumption has been challenged, however, by scientists seeking to identify the pathogen that causes Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease (CJD), a degenerative form of dementia in humans. CJD causes the brain to become riddled with tiny holes, like a sponge (evidence of extensive nerve cell death). Its symptoms include impaired muscle control, loss of mental acuity, memory loss, and chronic insomnia. Extensive experiments aimed at identifying the pathogen responsible for CJD have led surprisingly to the isolation of a disease agent lacking nucleic acid and consisting mainly, if not exclusively, of protein. Researchers coined the term "prion" for this new type of protein pathogen. Upon further study, scientists discovered that prions normally exist as harmless cellular proteins in many of the body's tissues, including white blood cells and nerve cells in the brain; however, they possess the capability of converting their structures into a dangerous abnormal shape. Prions exhibiting this abnormal conformation were found to have infectious properties and the ability to reproduce themselves in an unexpected way, by initiating a chain reaction that induces normally shaped prions to transform themselves on contact, one after another, into the abnormal, pathogenic conformation. This cascade of transformations produces a plaque, consisting of thread-like structures, that collects in the brain and ultimately destroys nerve cells. Because prions, unlike other pathogens, occur naturally in the body as proteins, the body does not produce an immune response when they are present. And in the absence of any effective therapy for preventing the cascade process by which affected prions reproduce themselves, CJD is inevitably fatal, though there are wide variations in pre-symptomatic incubation times and in how aggressively the disease progresses. Although the discovery of the link between prions and CJD was initially received with great skepticism in the scientific community, subsequent research has supported the conclusion that prions are an entirely new class of infectious pathogens. Furthermore, it is now believed that a similar process of protein malformation may be involved in other, more common degenerative neurological conditions such as Alzheimer's disease and Parkinson's disease. This possibility has yet to be fully explored, however, and the exact mechanisms by which prions reproduce themselves and cause cellular destruction have yet to be completely understood.
Q: Which one of the following most accurately expresses the main point of the passage?
Choices:
A.) Although most organisms are known to produce several kinds of proteins, the mechanism by which isolated protein molecules such as prions reproduce themselves is not yet known in detail.
B.) Recent research suggests that prions may be responsible not only for CJD, but for most other degenerative neurological conditions as well.
C.) The assertion that prions cause CJD has been received with great skepticism in the scientific community because it undermines a firmly entrenched view about the nature of pathogens.
D.) Research into the cause of CJD has uncovered a deadly class of protein pathogens uniquely capable of reproducing themselves without genetic material.
Answer:

Choices:
- A
- B
- C
- D


Question:
Passage: An organism is considered to have an infection when a disease-causing agent, called a pathogen, establishes a viable presence in the organism. This can occur only if the pathogenic agent is able to reproduce itself in the host organism. The only agents believed until recently to be responsible for infections—viruses, bacteria, fungi, and parasites—reproduce and regulate their other life processes by means of genetic material, composed of nucleic acid (DNA or RNA). It was thus widely assumed that all pathogens contain such genetic material in their cellular structure. This assumption has been challenged, however, by scientists seeking to identify the pathogen that causes Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease (CJD), a degenerative form of dementia in humans. CJD causes the brain to become riddled with tiny holes, like a sponge (evidence of extensive nerve cell death). Its symptoms include impaired muscle control, loss of mental acuity, memory loss, and chronic insomnia. Extensive experiments aimed at identifying the pathogen responsible for CJD have led surprisingly to the isolation of a disease agent lacking nucleic acid and consisting mainly, if not exclusively, of protein. Researchers coined the term "prion" for this new type of protein pathogen. Upon further study, scientists discovered that prions normally exist as harmless cellular proteins in many of the body's tissues, including white blood cells and nerve cells in the brain; however, they possess the capability of converting their structures into a dangerous abnormal shape. Prions exhibiting this abnormal conformation were found to have infectious properties and the ability to reproduce themselves in an unexpected way, by initiating a chain reaction that induces normally shaped prions to transform themselves on contact, one after another, into the abnormal, pathogenic conformation. This cascade of transformations produces a plaque, consisting of thread-like structures, that collects in the brain and ultimately destroys nerve cells. Because prions, unlike other pathogens, occur naturally in the body as proteins, the body does not produce an immune response when they are present. And in the absence of any effective therapy for preventing the cascade process by which affected prions reproduce themselves, CJD is inevitably fatal, though there are wide variations in pre-symptomatic incubation times and in how aggressively the disease progresses. Although the discovery of the link between prions and CJD was initially received with great skepticism in the scientific community, subsequent research has supported the conclusion that prions are an entirely new class of infectious pathogens. Furthermore, it is now believed that a similar process of protein malformation may be involved in other, more common degenerative neurological conditions such as Alzheimer's disease and Parkinson's disease. This possibility has yet to be fully explored, however, and the exact mechanisms by which prions reproduce themselves and cause cellular destruction have yet to be completely understood.
Q: Which one of the following is most strongly supported by the passage?
Choices:
A.) The prevention of CJD would be most efficiently achieved by the prevention of certain genetic abnormalities.
B.) The prion theory of infection has weak support within the scientific community.
C.) CJD is contagious, though not highly so.
D.) Although patients with CJD exhibit different incubation times, the disease progresses at about the same rate in all patients once symptoms are manifested.
Answer:

Choices:
- A
- B
- C
- D


Question:
Passage: An organism is considered to have an infection when a disease-causing agent, called a pathogen, establishes a viable presence in the organism. This can occur only if the pathogenic agent is able to reproduce itself in the host organism. The only agents believed until recently to be responsible for infections—viruses, bacteria, fungi, and parasites—reproduce and regulate their other life processes by means of genetic material, composed of nucleic acid (DNA or RNA). It was thus widely assumed that all pathogens contain such genetic material in their cellular structure. This assumption has been challenged, however, by scientists seeking to identify the pathogen that causes Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease (CJD), a degenerative form of dementia in humans. CJD causes the brain to become riddled with tiny holes, like a sponge (evidence of extensive nerve cell death). Its symptoms include impaired muscle control, loss of mental acuity, memory loss, and chronic insomnia. Extensive experiments aimed at identifying the pathogen responsible for CJD have led surprisingly to the isolation of a disease agent lacking nucleic acid and consisting mainly, if not exclusively, of protein. Researchers coined the term "prion" for this new type of protein pathogen. Upon further study, scientists discovered that prions normally exist as harmless cellular proteins in many of the body's tissues, including white blood cells and nerve cells in the brain; however, they possess the capability of converting their structures into a dangerous abnormal shape. Prions exhibiting this abnormal conformation were found to have infectious properties and the ability to reproduce themselves in an unexpected way, by initiating a chain reaction that induces normally shaped prions to transform themselves on contact, one after another, into the abnormal, pathogenic conformation. This cascade of transformations produces a plaque, consisting of thread-like structures, that collects in the brain and ultimately destroys nerve cells. Because prions, unlike other pathogens, occur naturally in the body as proteins, the body does not produce an immune response when they are present. And in the absence of any effective therapy for preventing the cascade process by which affected prions reproduce themselves, CJD is inevitably fatal, though there are wide variations in pre-symptomatic incubation times and in how aggressively the disease progresses. Although the discovery of the link between prions and CJD was initially received with great skepticism in the scientific community, subsequent research has supported the conclusion that prions are an entirely new class of infectious pathogens. Furthermore, it is now believed that a similar process of protein malformation may be involved in other, more common degenerative neurological conditions such as Alzheimer's disease and Parkinson's disease. This possibility has yet to be fully explored, however, and the exact mechanisms by which prions reproduce themselves and cause cellular destruction have yet to be completely understood.
Q: If the hypothesis that CJD is caused by prions is correct, finding the answer to which one of the following questions would tend most to help a physician in deciding whether a patient has CJD?
Choices:
A.) Has the patient been exposed to any forms of radiation that have a known tendency to cause certain kinds of genetic damage?
B.) Does the patient experience occasional bouts of insomnia?
C.) Has the patient suffered a severe blow to the skull recently?
D.) Does the patient's brain tissue exhibit the presence of any abnormal thread-like structures?
Answer:

Choices:
- A
- B
- C
- D