Question:
Passage: The news is a form of public knowledge..Unlike personal or private knowledge (such as the.health of one’s friends and family; the conduct of a.Line private hobby; a secret liaison), public knowledge.increases in value as it is shared by more people. The.date of an election and the claims of rival candidates;.the causes and consequences of an environmental.disaster; a debate about how to frame a particular.law; the latest reports from a war zone—these are all.examples of public knowledge that people are.generally expected to know in order to be considered.informed citizens. Thus, in contrast to personal or.private knowledge, which is generally left to.individuals to pursue or ignore, public knowledge is.promoted even to those who might not think it.matters to them. In short, the circulation of public.knowledge, including the news, is generally regarded.as a public good which cannot be solely.demand-driven..The production, circulation, and reception.of public knowledge is a complex process. It is.generally accepted that public knowledge should.be authoritative, but there is not always.common agreement about what the public needs to.know, who is best placed to relate and explain it, and.how authoritative reputations should be determined.and evaluated. Historically, newspapers such as The.Times and broadcasters such as the BBC were widely.regarded as the trusted shapers of authoritative.agendas and conventional wisdom. They embodied.the Oxford English Dictionary’s definition of.authority as the “power over, or title to influence, the.opinions of others.” As part of the general process of.the transformation of authority whereby there has.been a reluctance to uncritically accept traditional.sources of public knowledge, the demand has been.for all authority to make explicit the frames of value.which determine their decisions. Centres of news.production, as our focus groups show, have not been.exempt from this process. Not surprisingly perhaps.some news journalists feel uneasy about this.renegotiation of their authority:.Editors are increasingly casting a glance at the.“most read” lists on their own and other websites.to work out which stories matter to readers and.viewers. And now the audience—which used to.know its place—is being asked to act as a kind of.journalistic ombudsman, ruling on our.credibility (broadcast journalist, 2008)..The result of democratising access to TV news.could be political disengagement by the majority.and a dumbing down through a popularity.contest of stories (online news editor, 2007)..Despite the rhetorical bluster of these statements,.they amount to more than straightforward.professional defensiveness. In their reference to an.audience “which used to know its place” and.conflation between democratisation and “dumbing.down,” they are seeking to argue for a particular.mode of public knowledge: one which is shaped by.experts, immune from populist pressures; and.disseminated to attentive, but mainly passive.recipients. It is a view of citizenship that closes down.opportunities for popular involvement in the making.of public knowledge by reinforcing the professional.claims of experts. The journalists quoted above are.right to feel uneasy, for there is, at almost every.institutional level in contemporary society,.scepticism towards the epistemological authority of.expert elites. There is a growing feeling, as expressed.by several of our focus group participants, that the.news media should be “informative rather than.authoritative”; the job of journalists should be to.“give the news as raw as it is, without putting their.slant on it”; and people should be given “sufficient.information” from which “we would be able to form.opinions of our own.”.At stake here are two distinct conceptions of.authority. The journalists we have quoted are.resistant to the democratisation of news:.the supremacy of the clickstream (according to.which editors raise or lower the profile of stories.according to the number of readers clicking on them.online); the parity of popular culture with “serious”.news; the demands of some audience members for.raw news rather than constructed narratives.
Q: The main purpose of the passage is to
Choices:
A.) show how journalists’ frames of value influence the production of news stories.
B.) analyze the technological developments that have affected the production, circulation, and reception of news stories.
C.) discuss changes in the perception of the news media as a source of public knowledge.
D.) challenge the conventional view that news is a form of public knowledge.
Answer:

Choices:
- A
- B
- C
- D


Question:
Passage: The news is a form of public knowledge..Unlike personal or private knowledge (such as the.health of one’s friends and family; the conduct of a.Line private hobby; a secret liaison), public knowledge.increases in value as it is shared by more people. The.date of an election and the claims of rival candidates;.the causes and consequences of an environmental.disaster; a debate about how to frame a particular.law; the latest reports from a war zone—these are all.examples of public knowledge that people are.generally expected to know in order to be considered.informed citizens. Thus, in contrast to personal or.private knowledge, which is generally left to.individuals to pursue or ignore, public knowledge is.promoted even to those who might not think it.matters to them. In short, the circulation of public.knowledge, including the news, is generally regarded.as a public good which cannot be solely.demand-driven..The production, circulation, and reception.of public knowledge is a complex process. It is.generally accepted that public knowledge should.be authoritative, but there is not always.common agreement about what the public needs to.know, who is best placed to relate and explain it, and.how authoritative reputations should be determined.and evaluated. Historically, newspapers such as The.Times and broadcasters such as the BBC were widely.regarded as the trusted shapers of authoritative.agendas and conventional wisdom. They embodied.the Oxford English Dictionary’s definition of.authority as the “power over, or title to influence, the.opinions of others.” As part of the general process of.the transformation of authority whereby there has.been a reluctance to uncritically accept traditional.sources of public knowledge, the demand has been.for all authority to make explicit the frames of value.which determine their decisions. Centres of news.production, as our focus groups show, have not been.exempt from this process. Not surprisingly perhaps.some news journalists feel uneasy about this.renegotiation of their authority:.Editors are increasingly casting a glance at the.“most read” lists on their own and other websites.to work out which stories matter to readers and.viewers. And now the audience—which used to.know its place—is being asked to act as a kind of.journalistic ombudsman, ruling on our.credibility (broadcast journalist, 2008)..The result of democratising access to TV news.could be political disengagement by the majority.and a dumbing down through a popularity.contest of stories (online news editor, 2007)..Despite the rhetorical bluster of these statements,.they amount to more than straightforward.professional defensiveness. In their reference to an.audience “which used to know its place” and.conflation between democratisation and “dumbing.down,” they are seeking to argue for a particular.mode of public knowledge: one which is shaped by.experts, immune from populist pressures; and.disseminated to attentive, but mainly passive.recipients. It is a view of citizenship that closes down.opportunities for popular involvement in the making.of public knowledge by reinforcing the professional.claims of experts. The journalists quoted above are.right to feel uneasy, for there is, at almost every.institutional level in contemporary society,.scepticism towards the epistemological authority of.expert elites. There is a growing feeling, as expressed.by several of our focus group participants, that the.news media should be “informative rather than.authoritative”; the job of journalists should be to.“give the news as raw as it is, without putting their.slant on it”; and people should be given “sufficient.information” from which “we would be able to form.opinions of our own.”.At stake here are two distinct conceptions of.authority. The journalists we have quoted are.resistant to the democratisation of news:.the supremacy of the clickstream (according to.which editors raise or lower the profile of stories.according to the number of readers clicking on them.online); the parity of popular culture with “serious”.news; the demands of some audience members for.raw news rather than constructed narratives.
Q: According to the passage, which expectation do traditionalauthorities now face?
Choices:
A.) They should be respectful of the difference between public and private knowledge.
B.) They should be uninfluenced by commercial considerations.
C.) They should be transparent about their beliefs and assumptions.
D.) They should be committed to bringing about positive social change.
Answer:

Choices:
- A
- B
- C
- D


Question:
Passage: The news is a form of public knowledge..Unlike personal or private knowledge (such as the.health of one’s friends and family; the conduct of a.Line private hobby; a secret liaison), public knowledge.increases in value as it is shared by more people. The.date of an election and the claims of rival candidates;.the causes and consequences of an environmental.disaster; a debate about how to frame a particular.law; the latest reports from a war zone—these are all.examples of public knowledge that people are.generally expected to know in order to be considered.informed citizens. Thus, in contrast to personal or.private knowledge, which is generally left to.individuals to pursue or ignore, public knowledge is.promoted even to those who might not think it.matters to them. In short, the circulation of public.knowledge, including the news, is generally regarded.as a public good which cannot be solely.demand-driven..The production, circulation, and reception.of public knowledge is a complex process. It is.generally accepted that public knowledge should.be authoritative, but there is not always.common agreement about what the public needs to.know, who is best placed to relate and explain it, and.how authoritative reputations should be determined.and evaluated. Historically, newspapers such as The.Times and broadcasters such as the BBC were widely.regarded as the trusted shapers of authoritative.agendas and conventional wisdom. They embodied.the Oxford English Dictionary’s definition of.authority as the “power over, or title to influence, the.opinions of others.” As part of the general process of.the transformation of authority whereby there has.been a reluctance to uncritically accept traditional.sources of public knowledge, the demand has been.for all authority to make explicit the frames of value.which determine their decisions. Centres of news.production, as our focus groups show, have not been.exempt from this process. Not surprisingly perhaps.some news journalists feel uneasy about this.renegotiation of their authority:.Editors are increasingly casting a glance at the.“most read” lists on their own and other websites.to work out which stories matter to readers and.viewers. And now the audience—which used to.know its place—is being asked to act as a kind of.journalistic ombudsman, ruling on our.credibility (broadcast journalist, 2008)..The result of democratising access to TV news.could be political disengagement by the majority.and a dumbing down through a popularity.contest of stories (online news editor, 2007)..Despite the rhetorical bluster of these statements,.they amount to more than straightforward.professional defensiveness. In their reference to an.audience “which used to know its place” and.conflation between democratisation and “dumbing.down,” they are seeking to argue for a particular.mode of public knowledge: one which is shaped by.experts, immune from populist pressures; and.disseminated to attentive, but mainly passive.recipients. It is a view of citizenship that closes down.opportunities for popular involvement in the making.of public knowledge by reinforcing the professional.claims of experts. The journalists quoted above are.right to feel uneasy, for there is, at almost every.institutional level in contemporary society,.scepticism towards the epistemological authority of.expert elites. There is a growing feeling, as expressed.by several of our focus group participants, that the.news media should be “informative rather than.authoritative”; the job of journalists should be to.“give the news as raw as it is, without putting their.slant on it”; and people should be given “sufficient.information” from which “we would be able to form.opinions of our own.”.At stake here are two distinct conceptions of.authority. The journalists we have quoted are.resistant to the democratisation of news:.the supremacy of the clickstream (according to.which editors raise or lower the profile of stories.according to the number of readers clicking on them.online); the parity of popular culture with “serious”.news; the demands of some audience members for.raw news rather than constructed narratives.
Q: The authors indicate that the public is coming to believethat journalists’ reports should avoid
Choices:
A.) quotations from authorities on the subject matter.
B.) details that the subjects of news reports wish to keep private.
C.) personal judgments about the events reported.
D.) more information than is absolutely necessary.
Answer:

Choices:
- A
- B
- C
- D


Question:
Passage: The news is a form of public knowledge..Unlike personal or private knowledge (such as the.health of one’s friends and family; the conduct of a.Line private hobby; a secret liaison), public knowledge.increases in value as it is shared by more people. The.date of an election and the claims of rival candidates;.the causes and consequences of an environmental.disaster; a debate about how to frame a particular.law; the latest reports from a war zone—these are all.examples of public knowledge that people are.generally expected to know in order to be considered.informed citizens. Thus, in contrast to personal or.private knowledge, which is generally left to.individuals to pursue or ignore, public knowledge is.promoted even to those who might not think it.matters to them. In short, the circulation of public.knowledge, including the news, is generally regarded.as a public good which cannot be solely.demand-driven..The production, circulation, and reception.of public knowledge is a complex process. It is.generally accepted that public knowledge should.be authoritative, but there is not always.common agreement about what the public needs to.know, who is best placed to relate and explain it, and.how authoritative reputations should be determined.and evaluated. Historically, newspapers such as The.Times and broadcasters such as the BBC were widely.regarded as the trusted shapers of authoritative.agendas and conventional wisdom. They embodied.the Oxford English Dictionary’s definition of.authority as the “power over, or title to influence, the.opinions of others.” As part of the general process of.the transformation of authority whereby there has.been a reluctance to uncritically accept traditional.sources of public knowledge, the demand has been.for all authority to make explicit the frames of value.which determine their decisions. Centres of news.production, as our focus groups show, have not been.exempt from this process. Not surprisingly perhaps.some news journalists feel uneasy about this.renegotiation of their authority:.Editors are increasingly casting a glance at the.“most read” lists on their own and other websites.to work out which stories matter to readers and.viewers. And now the audience—which used to.know its place—is being asked to act as a kind of.journalistic ombudsman, ruling on our.credibility (broadcast journalist, 2008)..The result of democratising access to TV news.could be political disengagement by the majority.and a dumbing down through a popularity.contest of stories (online news editor, 2007)..Despite the rhetorical bluster of these statements,.they amount to more than straightforward.professional defensiveness. In their reference to an.audience “which used to know its place” and.conflation between democratisation and “dumbing.down,” they are seeking to argue for a particular.mode of public knowledge: one which is shaped by.experts, immune from populist pressures; and.disseminated to attentive, but mainly passive.recipients. It is a view of citizenship that closes down.opportunities for popular involvement in the making.of public knowledge by reinforcing the professional.claims of experts. The journalists quoted above are.right to feel uneasy, for there is, at almost every.institutional level in contemporary society,.scepticism towards the epistemological authority of.expert elites. There is a growing feeling, as expressed.by several of our focus group participants, that the.news media should be “informative rather than.authoritative”; the job of journalists should be to.“give the news as raw as it is, without putting their.slant on it”; and people should be given “sufficient.information” from which “we would be able to form.opinions of our own.”.At stake here are two distinct conceptions of.authority. The journalists we have quoted are.resistant to the democratisation of news:.the supremacy of the clickstream (according to.which editors raise or lower the profile of stories.according to the number of readers clicking on them.online); the parity of popular culture with “serious”.news; the demands of some audience members for.raw news rather than constructed narratives.
Q: Based on the table, in which year were people the most trusting of the news media?
Choices:
A.) 2003
B.) 1985
C.) 2011
D.) 1992
Answer:

Choices:
- A
- B
- C
- D


Question:
Passage: The news is a form of public knowledge..Unlike personal or private knowledge (such as the.health of one’s friends and family; the conduct of a.Line private hobby; a secret liaison), public knowledge.increases in value as it is shared by more people. The.date of an election and the claims of rival candidates;.the causes and consequences of an environmental.disaster; a debate about how to frame a particular.law; the latest reports from a war zone—these are all.examples of public knowledge that people are.generally expected to know in order to be considered.informed citizens. Thus, in contrast to personal or.private knowledge, which is generally left to.individuals to pursue or ignore, public knowledge is.promoted even to those who might not think it.matters to them. In short, the circulation of public.knowledge, including the news, is generally regarded.as a public good which cannot be solely.demand-driven..The production, circulation, and reception.of public knowledge is a complex process. It is.generally accepted that public knowledge should.be authoritative, but there is not always.common agreement about what the public needs to.know, who is best placed to relate and explain it, and.how authoritative reputations should be determined.and evaluated. Historically, newspapers such as The.Times and broadcasters such as the BBC were widely.regarded as the trusted shapers of authoritative.agendas and conventional wisdom. They embodied.the Oxford English Dictionary’s definition of.authority as the “power over, or title to influence, the.opinions of others.” As part of the general process of.the transformation of authority whereby there has.been a reluctance to uncritically accept traditional.sources of public knowledge, the demand has been.for all authority to make explicit the frames of value.which determine their decisions. Centres of news.production, as our focus groups show, have not been.exempt from this process. Not surprisingly perhaps.some news journalists feel uneasy about this.renegotiation of their authority:.Editors are increasingly casting a glance at the.“most read” lists on their own and other websites.to work out which stories matter to readers and.viewers. And now the audience—which used to.know its place—is being asked to act as a kind of.journalistic ombudsman, ruling on our.credibility (broadcast journalist, 2008)..The result of democratising access to TV news.could be political disengagement by the majority.and a dumbing down through a popularity.contest of stories (online news editor, 2007)..Despite the rhetorical bluster of these statements,.they amount to more than straightforward.professional defensiveness. In their reference to an.audience “which used to know its place” and.conflation between democratisation and “dumbing.down,” they are seeking to argue for a particular.mode of public knowledge: one which is shaped by.experts, immune from populist pressures; and.disseminated to attentive, but mainly passive.recipients. It is a view of citizenship that closes down.opportunities for popular involvement in the making.of public knowledge by reinforcing the professional.claims of experts. The journalists quoted above are.right to feel uneasy, for there is, at almost every.institutional level in contemporary society,.scepticism towards the epistemological authority of.expert elites. There is a growing feeling, as expressed.by several of our focus group participants, that the.news media should be “informative rather than.authoritative”; the job of journalists should be to.“give the news as raw as it is, without putting their.slant on it”; and people should be given “sufficient.information” from which “we would be able to form.opinions of our own.”.At stake here are two distinct conceptions of.authority. The journalists we have quoted are.resistant to the democratisation of news:.the supremacy of the clickstream (according to.which editors raise or lower the profile of stories.according to the number of readers clicking on them.online); the parity of popular culture with “serious”.news; the demands of some audience members for.raw news rather than constructed narratives.
Q: Which statement is best supported by information presented in the table?
Choices:
A.) Between 1992 and 2003, the proportion of people who believed that news organizations were biased almost doubled.
B.) Between 2007 and 2011, people’s perception that news organizations are accurate increased, but people’s perception that news organizations are fair diminished.
C.) Between 2003 and 2007, people’s views of the accuracy, independence, and fairness of news organizations changed very little.
D.) Between 1985 and 2011, the proportion of inaccurate news stories rose dramatically.
Answer:

Choices:
- A
- B
- C
- D


Question:
Passage: Texas gourd vines unfurl their large, flared.blossoms in the dim hours before sunrise. Until they.close at noon, their yellow petals and mild, squashy.aroma attract bees that gather nectar and shuttle.pollen from flower to flower. But “when you.advertise [to pollinators], you advertise in an.open communication network,” says chemical.ecologist Ian Baldwin of the Max Planck Institute for.Chemical Ecology in Germany. “You attract not just.the good guys, but you also attract the bad guys.” For.a Texas gourd plant, striped cucumber beetles are.among the very bad guys. They chew up pollen and.petals, defecate in the flowers and transmit the.dreaded bacterial wilt disease, an infection that can.reduce an entire plant to a heap of collapsed tissue in.mere days..In one recent study, Nina Theis and Lynn Adler.took on the specific problem of the Texas.gourd—how to attract enough pollinators but not.too many beetles. The Texas gourd vine’s main.pollinators are honey bees and specialized squash.bees, which respond to its floral scent. The aroma.includes 10 compounds, but the most.abundant—and the only one that lures squash bees.into traps—is 1,4-dimethoxybenzene..Intuition suggests that more of that aroma should.be even more appealing to bees. “We have this.assumption that a really fragrant flower is going to.attract a lot of pollinators,” says Theis, a chemical.ecologist at Elms College in Chicopee,.Massachusetts. But, she adds, that idea hasn’t really.been tested—and extra scent could well call in more.beetles, too. To find out, she and Adler planted 168 Texas gourd vines in an Iowa field and,.throughout the August flowering season, made half.the plants more fragrant by tucking.dimethoxybenzene-treated swabs deep inside their.flowers. Each treated flower emitted about 45 times.more fragrance than a normal one; the other half of.the plants got swabs without fragrance..The researchers also wanted to know whether.extra beetles would impose a double cost by both.damaging flowers and deterring bees, which might.not bother to visit (and pollinate) a flower laden with.other insects and their feces. So every half hour.throughout the experiments, the team plucked all the.beetles off of half the fragrance-enhanced flowers and.half the control flowers, allowing bees to respond to.the blossoms with and without interference by.beetles..Finally, they pollinated by hand half of the female.flowers in each of the four combinations of fragrance.and beetles. Hand-pollinated flowers should develop.into fruits with the maximum number of seeds,.providing a benchmark to see whether the.fragrance-related activities of bees and beetles.resulted in reduced pollination..“It was very labor intensive,” says Theis..“We would be out there at four in the morning, three.in the morning, to try and set up before these flowers.open.” As soon as they did, the team spent the next.several hours walking from flower to flower,.observing each for two-minute intervals “and writing.down everything we saw.”.What they saw was double the normal number of.beetles on fragrance-enhanced blossoms..Pollinators, to their surprise, did not prefer the.highly scented flowers. Squash bees were indifferent,.and honey bees visited enhanced flowers less often.than normal ones. Theis thinks the bees were.repelled not by the fragrance itself, but by the.abundance of beetles: The data showed that the more.beetles on a flower, the less likely a honey bee was to.visit it..That added up to less reproduction for.fragrance-enhanced flowers. Gourds that developed.from those blossoms weighed 9 percent less and had,.on average, 20 fewer seeds than those from normal.flowers. Hand pollination didn’t rescue the seed set,.indicating that beetles damaged flowers directly.—regardless of whether they also repelled.pollinators. (Hand pollination did rescue fruit.weight, a hard-to-interpret result that suggests that.lost bee visits did somehow harm fruit development.).The new results provide a reason that Texas gourd.plants never evolved to produce a stronger scent: “If.you really ramp up the odor, you don’t get more.pollinators, but you can really get ripped apart by.your enemies,” says Rob Raguso, a chemical ecologist.at Cornell University who was not involved in the.Texas gourd study.
Q: As presented in the passage, Theis and Adler’s research primarily relied on which type of evidence?
Choices:
A.) Historical data
B.) Direct observation
C.) Random sampling
D.) Expert testimony
Answer:

Choices:
- A
- B
- C
- D


Question:
Passage: Texas gourd vines unfurl their large, flared.blossoms in the dim hours before sunrise. Until they.close at noon, their yellow petals and mild, squashy.aroma attract bees that gather nectar and shuttle.pollen from flower to flower. But “when you.advertise [to pollinators], you advertise in an.open communication network,” says chemical.ecologist Ian Baldwin of the Max Planck Institute for.Chemical Ecology in Germany. “You attract not just.the good guys, but you also attract the bad guys.” For.a Texas gourd plant, striped cucumber beetles are.among the very bad guys. They chew up pollen and.petals, defecate in the flowers and transmit the.dreaded bacterial wilt disease, an infection that can.reduce an entire plant to a heap of collapsed tissue in.mere days..In one recent study, Nina Theis and Lynn Adler.took on the specific problem of the Texas.gourd—how to attract enough pollinators but not.too many beetles. The Texas gourd vine’s main.pollinators are honey bees and specialized squash.bees, which respond to its floral scent. The aroma.includes 10 compounds, but the most.abundant—and the only one that lures squash bees.into traps—is 1,4-dimethoxybenzene..Intuition suggests that more of that aroma should.be even more appealing to bees. “We have this.assumption that a really fragrant flower is going to.attract a lot of pollinators,” says Theis, a chemical.ecologist at Elms College in Chicopee,.Massachusetts. But, she adds, that idea hasn’t really.been tested—and extra scent could well call in more.beetles, too. To find out, she and Adler planted 168 Texas gourd vines in an Iowa field and,.throughout the August flowering season, made half.the plants more fragrant by tucking.dimethoxybenzene-treated swabs deep inside their.flowers. Each treated flower emitted about 45 times.more fragrance than a normal one; the other half of.the plants got swabs without fragrance..The researchers also wanted to know whether.extra beetles would impose a double cost by both.damaging flowers and deterring bees, which might.not bother to visit (and pollinate) a flower laden with.other insects and their feces. So every half hour.throughout the experiments, the team plucked all the.beetles off of half the fragrance-enhanced flowers and.half the control flowers, allowing bees to respond to.the blossoms with and without interference by.beetles..Finally, they pollinated by hand half of the female.flowers in each of the four combinations of fragrance.and beetles. Hand-pollinated flowers should develop.into fruits with the maximum number of seeds,.providing a benchmark to see whether the.fragrance-related activities of bees and beetles.resulted in reduced pollination..“It was very labor intensive,” says Theis..“We would be out there at four in the morning, three.in the morning, to try and set up before these flowers.open.” As soon as they did, the team spent the next.several hours walking from flower to flower,.observing each for two-minute intervals “and writing.down everything we saw.”.What they saw was double the normal number of.beetles on fragrance-enhanced blossoms..Pollinators, to their surprise, did not prefer the.highly scented flowers. Squash bees were indifferent,.and honey bees visited enhanced flowers less often.than normal ones. Theis thinks the bees were.repelled not by the fragrance itself, but by the.abundance of beetles: The data showed that the more.beetles on a flower, the less likely a honey bee was to.visit it..That added up to less reproduction for.fragrance-enhanced flowers. Gourds that developed.from those blossoms weighed 9 percent less and had,.on average, 20 fewer seeds than those from normal.flowers. Hand pollination didn’t rescue the seed set,.indicating that beetles damaged flowers directly.—regardless of whether they also repelled.pollinators. (Hand pollination did rescue fruit.weight, a hard-to-interpret result that suggests that.lost bee visits did somehow harm fruit development.).The new results provide a reason that Texas gourd.plants never evolved to produce a stronger scent: “If.you really ramp up the odor, you don’t get more.pollinators, but you can really get ripped apart by.your enemies,” says Rob Raguso, a chemical ecologist.at Cornell University who was not involved in the.Texas gourd study.
Q: Which statement about striped cucumber beetles can most reasonably be inferred from the passage?
Choices:
A.) They are less attracted to dimethoxybenzene than honey bees are.
B.) They are attracted to the same compound in Texas gourd scent that squash bees are.
C.) They experience only minor negative effects as a result of carrying bacterial wilt disease.
D.) They feed primarily on Texas gourd plants.
Answer:

Choices:
- A
- B
- C
- D


Question:
Passage: Texas gourd vines unfurl their large, flared.blossoms in the dim hours before sunrise. Until they.close at noon, their yellow petals and mild, squashy.aroma attract bees that gather nectar and shuttle.pollen from flower to flower. But “when you.advertise [to pollinators], you advertise in an.open communication network,” says chemical.ecologist Ian Baldwin of the Max Planck Institute for.Chemical Ecology in Germany. “You attract not just.the good guys, but you also attract the bad guys.” For.a Texas gourd plant, striped cucumber beetles are.among the very bad guys. They chew up pollen and.petals, defecate in the flowers and transmit the.dreaded bacterial wilt disease, an infection that can.reduce an entire plant to a heap of collapsed tissue in.mere days..In one recent study, Nina Theis and Lynn Adler.took on the specific problem of the Texas.gourd—how to attract enough pollinators but not.too many beetles. The Texas gourd vine’s main.pollinators are honey bees and specialized squash.bees, which respond to its floral scent. The aroma.includes 10 compounds, but the most.abundant—and the only one that lures squash bees.into traps—is 1,4-dimethoxybenzene..Intuition suggests that more of that aroma should.be even more appealing to bees. “We have this.assumption that a really fragrant flower is going to.attract a lot of pollinators,” says Theis, a chemical.ecologist at Elms College in Chicopee,.Massachusetts. But, she adds, that idea hasn’t really.been tested—and extra scent could well call in more.beetles, too. To find out, she and Adler planted 168 Texas gourd vines in an Iowa field and,.throughout the August flowering season, made half.the plants more fragrant by tucking.dimethoxybenzene-treated swabs deep inside their.flowers. Each treated flower emitted about 45 times.more fragrance than a normal one; the other half of.the plants got swabs without fragrance..The researchers also wanted to know whether.extra beetles would impose a double cost by both.damaging flowers and deterring bees, which might.not bother to visit (and pollinate) a flower laden with.other insects and their feces. So every half hour.throughout the experiments, the team plucked all the.beetles off of half the fragrance-enhanced flowers and.half the control flowers, allowing bees to respond to.the blossoms with and without interference by.beetles..Finally, they pollinated by hand half of the female.flowers in each of the four combinations of fragrance.and beetles. Hand-pollinated flowers should develop.into fruits with the maximum number of seeds,.providing a benchmark to see whether the.fragrance-related activities of bees and beetles.resulted in reduced pollination..“It was very labor intensive,” says Theis..“We would be out there at four in the morning, three.in the morning, to try and set up before these flowers.open.” As soon as they did, the team spent the next.several hours walking from flower to flower,.observing each for two-minute intervals “and writing.down everything we saw.”.What they saw was double the normal number of.beetles on fragrance-enhanced blossoms..Pollinators, to their surprise, did not prefer the.highly scented flowers. Squash bees were indifferent,.and honey bees visited enhanced flowers less often.than normal ones. Theis thinks the bees were.repelled not by the fragrance itself, but by the.abundance of beetles: The data showed that the more.beetles on a flower, the less likely a honey bee was to.visit it..That added up to less reproduction for.fragrance-enhanced flowers. Gourds that developed.from those blossoms weighed 9 percent less and had,.on average, 20 fewer seeds than those from normal.flowers. Hand pollination didn’t rescue the seed set,.indicating that beetles damaged flowers directly.—regardless of whether they also repelled.pollinators. (Hand pollination did rescue fruit.weight, a hard-to-interpret result that suggests that.lost bee visits did somehow harm fruit development.).The new results provide a reason that Texas gourd.plants never evolved to produce a stronger scent: “If.you really ramp up the odor, you don’t get more.pollinators, but you can really get ripped apart by.your enemies,” says Rob Raguso, a chemical ecologist.at Cornell University who was not involved in the.Texas gourd study.
Q: The author indicates that it seems initially plausible thatTexas gourd plants could attract more pollinators if they
Choices:
A.) targeted insects other than bees.
B.) emitted more varied fragrant compounds.
C.) did not have aromatic flowers.
D.) increased their floral scent.
Answer:

Choices:
- A
- B
- C
- D


Question:
Passage: Texas gourd vines unfurl their large, flared.blossoms in the dim hours before sunrise. Until they.close at noon, their yellow petals and mild, squashy.aroma attract bees that gather nectar and shuttle.pollen from flower to flower. But “when you.advertise [to pollinators], you advertise in an.open communication network,” says chemical.ecologist Ian Baldwin of the Max Planck Institute for.Chemical Ecology in Germany. “You attract not just.the good guys, but you also attract the bad guys.” For.a Texas gourd plant, striped cucumber beetles are.among the very bad guys. They chew up pollen and.petals, defecate in the flowers and transmit the.dreaded bacterial wilt disease, an infection that can.reduce an entire plant to a heap of collapsed tissue in.mere days..In one recent study, Nina Theis and Lynn Adler.took on the specific problem of the Texas.gourd—how to attract enough pollinators but not.too many beetles. The Texas gourd vine’s main.pollinators are honey bees and specialized squash.bees, which respond to its floral scent. The aroma.includes 10 compounds, but the most.abundant—and the only one that lures squash bees.into traps—is 1,4-dimethoxybenzene..Intuition suggests that more of that aroma should.be even more appealing to bees. “We have this.assumption that a really fragrant flower is going to.attract a lot of pollinators,” says Theis, a chemical.ecologist at Elms College in Chicopee,.Massachusetts. But, she adds, that idea hasn’t really.been tested—and extra scent could well call in more.beetles, too. To find out, she and Adler planted 168 Texas gourd vines in an Iowa field and,.throughout the August flowering season, made half.the plants more fragrant by tucking.dimethoxybenzene-treated swabs deep inside their.flowers. Each treated flower emitted about 45 times.more fragrance than a normal one; the other half of.the plants got swabs without fragrance..The researchers also wanted to know whether.extra beetles would impose a double cost by both.damaging flowers and deterring bees, which might.not bother to visit (and pollinate) a flower laden with.other insects and their feces. So every half hour.throughout the experiments, the team plucked all the.beetles off of half the fragrance-enhanced flowers and.half the control flowers, allowing bees to respond to.the blossoms with and without interference by.beetles..Finally, they pollinated by hand half of the female.flowers in each of the four combinations of fragrance.and beetles. Hand-pollinated flowers should develop.into fruits with the maximum number of seeds,.providing a benchmark to see whether the.fragrance-related activities of bees and beetles.resulted in reduced pollination..“It was very labor intensive,” says Theis..“We would be out there at four in the morning, three.in the morning, to try and set up before these flowers.open.” As soon as they did, the team spent the next.several hours walking from flower to flower,.observing each for two-minute intervals “and writing.down everything we saw.”.What they saw was double the normal number of.beetles on fragrance-enhanced blossoms..Pollinators, to their surprise, did not prefer the.highly scented flowers. Squash bees were indifferent,.and honey bees visited enhanced flowers less often.than normal ones. Theis thinks the bees were.repelled not by the fragrance itself, but by the.abundance of beetles: The data showed that the more.beetles on a flower, the less likely a honey bee was to.visit it..That added up to less reproduction for.fragrance-enhanced flowers. Gourds that developed.from those blossoms weighed 9 percent less and had,.on average, 20 fewer seeds than those from normal.flowers. Hand pollination didn’t rescue the seed set,.indicating that beetles damaged flowers directly.—regardless of whether they also repelled.pollinators. (Hand pollination did rescue fruit.weight, a hard-to-interpret result that suggests that.lost bee visits did somehow harm fruit development.).The new results provide a reason that Texas gourd.plants never evolved to produce a stronger scent: “If.you really ramp up the odor, you don’t get more.pollinators, but you can really get ripped apart by.your enemies,” says Rob Raguso, a chemical ecologist.at Cornell University who was not involved in the.Texas gourd study.
Q: According to the passage, Theis and Adler’s research offersan answer to which of the following questions?
Choices:
A.) Why do Texas gourd plants stop producing fragrance attractive to pollinators when beetles are present?
B.) Why is there an upper limit on the intensity of the aroma emitted by Texas gourd plants?
C.) How can Texas gourd plants increase the number of visits they receive from pollinators?
D.) Why does hand pollination rescue the fruit weight of beetle-infested Texas gourd plants?
Answer:

Choices:
- A
- B
- C
- D


Question:
Passage: Passage 1.Let every American, every lover of liberty, every.well wisher to his posterity, swear by the blood of the.Revolution, never to violate in the least particular,.the laws of the country; and never to tolerate their.violation by others. As the patriots of seventy-six did.to the support of the Declaration of Independence, so.to the support of the Constitution and Laws, let every.American pledge his life, his property, and his sacred.honor;—let every man remember that to violate the.law, is to trample on the blood of his father, and to.tear the character of his own, and his children’s.liberty. Let reverence for the laws, be breathed by.every American mother, to the lisping babe, that.prattles on her lap—let it be taught in schools, in.seminaries, and in colleges;—let it be written in.Primers, spelling books, and in Almanacs;—let it be.preached from the pulpit, proclaimed in legislative.halls, and enforced in courts of justice. And, in short,.let it become thepolitical religionof the nation;.and let the old and the young, the rich and the poor,.the grave and the gay, of all sexes and tongues, and.colors and conditions, sacrifice unceasingly upon its.altars.....When I so pressingly urge a strict observance of.all the laws, let me not be understood as saying there.are no bad laws, nor that grievances may not arise,.for the redress of which, no legal provisions have.been made. I mean to say no such thing. But I do.mean to say, that, although bad laws, if they exist,.should be repealed as soon as possible, still while they.continue in force, for the sake of example, they.should be religiously observed. So also in unprovided.cases. If such arise, let proper legal provisions be.made for them with the least possible delay; but, till.then, let them if not too intolerable, be borne with..There is no grievance that is a fit object of redress.by mob law. In any case that arises, as for instance,.the promulgation of abolitionism, one of two.positions is necessarily true; that is, the thing is right.within itself, and therefore deserves the protection of.all law and all good citizens; or, it is wrong, and.therefore proper to be prohibited by legal.enactments; and in neither case, is the interposition.of mob law, either necessary, justifiable, or excusable..Passage 2.Unjust laws exist; shall we be content to obey.them, or shall we endeavor to amend them, and obey.them until we have succeeded, or shall we transgress.them at once? Men generally, under such a.government as this, think that they ought to wait.until they have persuaded the majority to alter them..They think that, if they should resist, the remedy.would be worse than the evil. But it is the fault of the.government itself that the remedy is worse than the.evil. It makes it worse. Why is it not more apt to.anticipate and provide for reform? Why does it not.cherish its wise minority? Why does it cry and resist.before it is hurt?....If the injustice is part of the necessary friction of.the machine of government, let it go, let it go;.perchance it will wear smooth—certainly the.machine will wear out. If the injustice has a spring, or.a pulley, or a rope, or a crank, exclusively for itself,.then perhaps you may consider whether the remedy.will not be worse than the evil; but if it is of such a.nature that it requires you to be the agent of injustice.to another, then, I say, break the law. Let your life be.a counter friction to stop the machine. What I have.to do is to see, at any rate, that I do not lend myself to.the wrong which I condemn..As for adopting the ways which the State has.provided for remedying the evil, I know not of such.ways. They take too much time, and a man’s life will.be gone. I have other affairs to attend to. I came into.this world, not chiefly to make this a good place to.live in, but to live in it, be it good or bad. A man has.not everything to do, but something; and because he.cannot do everything, it is not necessary that he.should do something wrong.....I do not hesitate to say, that those who call.themselves Abolitionists should at once effectually.withdraw their support, both in person and property,.from the government...andnotwait till they.constitute a majority of one, before they suffer the.right to prevail through them. I think that it is.enough if they have God on their side, without.waiting for that other one. Moreover, any man more.right than his neighbors constitutes a majority of one.already.
Q: In Passage 1, Lincoln contends that breaking the law haswhich consequence?
Choices:
A.) It creates divisions between social groups.
B.) It leads slowly but inexorably to rule by the mob.
C.) It slows the repeal of bad laws.
D.) It undermines and repudiates the nation’s values.
Answer:

Choices:
- A
- B
- C
- D


Question:
Passage: Passage 1.Let every American, every lover of liberty, every.well wisher to his posterity, swear by the blood of the.Revolution, never to violate in the least particular,.the laws of the country; and never to tolerate their.violation by others. As the patriots of seventy-six did.to the support of the Declaration of Independence, so.to the support of the Constitution and Laws, let every.American pledge his life, his property, and his sacred.honor;—let every man remember that to violate the.law, is to trample on the blood of his father, and to.tear the character of his own, and his children’s.liberty. Let reverence for the laws, be breathed by.every American mother, to the lisping babe, that.prattles on her lap—let it be taught in schools, in.seminaries, and in colleges;—let it be written in.Primers, spelling books, and in Almanacs;—let it be.preached from the pulpit, proclaimed in legislative.halls, and enforced in courts of justice. And, in short,.let it become thepolitical religionof the nation;.and let the old and the young, the rich and the poor,.the grave and the gay, of all sexes and tongues, and.colors and conditions, sacrifice unceasingly upon its.altars.....When I so pressingly urge a strict observance of.all the laws, let me not be understood as saying there.are no bad laws, nor that grievances may not arise,.for the redress of which, no legal provisions have.been made. I mean to say no such thing. But I do.mean to say, that, although bad laws, if they exist,.should be repealed as soon as possible, still while they.continue in force, for the sake of example, they.should be religiously observed. So also in unprovided.cases. If such arise, let proper legal provisions be.made for them with the least possible delay; but, till.then, let them if not too intolerable, be borne with..There is no grievance that is a fit object of redress.by mob law. In any case that arises, as for instance,.the promulgation of abolitionism, one of two.positions is necessarily true; that is, the thing is right.within itself, and therefore deserves the protection of.all law and all good citizens; or, it is wrong, and.therefore proper to be prohibited by legal.enactments; and in neither case, is the interposition.of mob law, either necessary, justifiable, or excusable..Passage 2.Unjust laws exist; shall we be content to obey.them, or shall we endeavor to amend them, and obey.them until we have succeeded, or shall we transgress.them at once? Men generally, under such a.government as this, think that they ought to wait.until they have persuaded the majority to alter them..They think that, if they should resist, the remedy.would be worse than the evil. But it is the fault of the.government itself that the remedy is worse than the.evil. It makes it worse. Why is it not more apt to.anticipate and provide for reform? Why does it not.cherish its wise minority? Why does it cry and resist.before it is hurt?....If the injustice is part of the necessary friction of.the machine of government, let it go, let it go;.perchance it will wear smooth—certainly the.machine will wear out. If the injustice has a spring, or.a pulley, or a rope, or a crank, exclusively for itself,.then perhaps you may consider whether the remedy.will not be worse than the evil; but if it is of such a.nature that it requires you to be the agent of injustice.to another, then, I say, break the law. Let your life be.a counter friction to stop the machine. What I have.to do is to see, at any rate, that I do not lend myself to.the wrong which I condemn..As for adopting the ways which the State has.provided for remedying the evil, I know not of such.ways. They take too much time, and a man’s life will.be gone. I have other affairs to attend to. I came into.this world, not chiefly to make this a good place to.live in, but to live in it, be it good or bad. A man has.not everything to do, but something; and because he.cannot do everything, it is not necessary that he.should do something wrong.....I do not hesitate to say, that those who call.themselves Abolitionists should at once effectually.withdraw their support, both in person and property,.from the government...andnotwait till they.constitute a majority of one, before they suffer the.right to prevail through them. I think that it is.enough if they have God on their side, without.waiting for that other one. Moreover, any man more.right than his neighbors constitutes a majority of one.already.
Q: In Passage 2, Thoreau indicates that some unjust aspectsof government are
Choices:
A.) subtle and must be studied carefully.
B.) inevitable and should be endured.
C.) self-correcting and may be beneficial.
D.) superficial and can be fixed easily.
Answer:

Choices:
- A
- B
- C
- D


Question:
Passage: Passage 1.Let every American, every lover of liberty, every.well wisher to his posterity, swear by the blood of the.Revolution, never to violate in the least particular,.the laws of the country; and never to tolerate their.violation by others. As the patriots of seventy-six did.to the support of the Declaration of Independence, so.to the support of the Constitution and Laws, let every.American pledge his life, his property, and his sacred.honor;—let every man remember that to violate the.law, is to trample on the blood of his father, and to.tear the character of his own, and his children’s.liberty. Let reverence for the laws, be breathed by.every American mother, to the lisping babe, that.prattles on her lap—let it be taught in schools, in.seminaries, and in colleges;—let it be written in.Primers, spelling books, and in Almanacs;—let it be.preached from the pulpit, proclaimed in legislative.halls, and enforced in courts of justice. And, in short,.let it become thepolitical religionof the nation;.and let the old and the young, the rich and the poor,.the grave and the gay, of all sexes and tongues, and.colors and conditions, sacrifice unceasingly upon its.altars.....When I so pressingly urge a strict observance of.all the laws, let me not be understood as saying there.are no bad laws, nor that grievances may not arise,.for the redress of which, no legal provisions have.been made. I mean to say no such thing. But I do.mean to say, that, although bad laws, if they exist,.should be repealed as soon as possible, still while they.continue in force, for the sake of example, they.should be religiously observed. So also in unprovided.cases. If such arise, let proper legal provisions be.made for them with the least possible delay; but, till.then, let them if not too intolerable, be borne with..There is no grievance that is a fit object of redress.by mob law. In any case that arises, as for instance,.the promulgation of abolitionism, one of two.positions is necessarily true; that is, the thing is right.within itself, and therefore deserves the protection of.all law and all good citizens; or, it is wrong, and.therefore proper to be prohibited by legal.enactments; and in neither case, is the interposition.of mob law, either necessary, justifiable, or excusable..Passage 2.Unjust laws exist; shall we be content to obey.them, or shall we endeavor to amend them, and obey.them until we have succeeded, or shall we transgress.them at once? Men generally, under such a.government as this, think that they ought to wait.until they have persuaded the majority to alter them..They think that, if they should resist, the remedy.would be worse than the evil. But it is the fault of the.government itself that the remedy is worse than the.evil. It makes it worse. Why is it not more apt to.anticipate and provide for reform? Why does it not.cherish its wise minority? Why does it cry and resist.before it is hurt?....If the injustice is part of the necessary friction of.the machine of government, let it go, let it go;.perchance it will wear smooth—certainly the.machine will wear out. If the injustice has a spring, or.a pulley, or a rope, or a crank, exclusively for itself,.then perhaps you may consider whether the remedy.will not be worse than the evil; but if it is of such a.nature that it requires you to be the agent of injustice.to another, then, I say, break the law. Let your life be.a counter friction to stop the machine. What I have.to do is to see, at any rate, that I do not lend myself to.the wrong which I condemn..As for adopting the ways which the State has.provided for remedying the evil, I know not of such.ways. They take too much time, and a man’s life will.be gone. I have other affairs to attend to. I came into.this world, not chiefly to make this a good place to.live in, but to live in it, be it good or bad. A man has.not everything to do, but something; and because he.cannot do everything, it is not necessary that he.should do something wrong.....I do not hesitate to say, that those who call.themselves Abolitionists should at once effectually.withdraw their support, both in person and property,.from the government...andnotwait till they.constitute a majority of one, before they suffer the.right to prevail through them. I think that it is.enough if they have God on their side, without.waiting for that other one. Moreover, any man more.right than his neighbors constitutes a majority of one.already.
Q: The primary purpose of each passage is to
Choices:
A.) advance a view regarding whether individuals should follow all of the country’s laws.
B.) articulate standards by which laws can be evaluated as just or unjust.
C.) make an argument about the difference between legal duties and moral imperatives.
D.) discuss how laws ought to be enacted and changed in a democracy.
Answer:

Choices:
- A
- B
- C
- D


Question:
Passage: Passage 1.Let every American, every lover of liberty, every.well wisher to his posterity, swear by the blood of the.Revolution, never to violate in the least particular,.the laws of the country; and never to tolerate their.violation by others. As the patriots of seventy-six did.to the support of the Declaration of Independence, so.to the support of the Constitution and Laws, let every.American pledge his life, his property, and his sacred.honor;—let every man remember that to violate the.law, is to trample on the blood of his father, and to.tear the character of his own, and his children’s.liberty. Let reverence for the laws, be breathed by.every American mother, to the lisping babe, that.prattles on her lap—let it be taught in schools, in.seminaries, and in colleges;—let it be written in.Primers, spelling books, and in Almanacs;—let it be.preached from the pulpit, proclaimed in legislative.halls, and enforced in courts of justice. And, in short,.let it become thepolitical religionof the nation;.and let the old and the young, the rich and the poor,.the grave and the gay, of all sexes and tongues, and.colors and conditions, sacrifice unceasingly upon its.altars.....When I so pressingly urge a strict observance of.all the laws, let me not be understood as saying there.are no bad laws, nor that grievances may not arise,.for the redress of which, no legal provisions have.been made. I mean to say no such thing. But I do.mean to say, that, although bad laws, if they exist,.should be repealed as soon as possible, still while they.continue in force, for the sake of example, they.should be religiously observed. So also in unprovided.cases. If such arise, let proper legal provisions be.made for them with the least possible delay; but, till.then, let them if not too intolerable, be borne with..There is no grievance that is a fit object of redress.by mob law. In any case that arises, as for instance,.the promulgation of abolitionism, one of two.positions is necessarily true; that is, the thing is right.within itself, and therefore deserves the protection of.all law and all good citizens; or, it is wrong, and.therefore proper to be prohibited by legal.enactments; and in neither case, is the interposition.of mob law, either necessary, justifiable, or excusable..Passage 2.Unjust laws exist; shall we be content to obey.them, or shall we endeavor to amend them, and obey.them until we have succeeded, or shall we transgress.them at once? Men generally, under such a.government as this, think that they ought to wait.until they have persuaded the majority to alter them..They think that, if they should resist, the remedy.would be worse than the evil. But it is the fault of the.government itself that the remedy is worse than the.evil. It makes it worse. Why is it not more apt to.anticipate and provide for reform? Why does it not.cherish its wise minority? Why does it cry and resist.before it is hurt?....If the injustice is part of the necessary friction of.the machine of government, let it go, let it go;.perchance it will wear smooth—certainly the.machine will wear out. If the injustice has a spring, or.a pulley, or a rope, or a crank, exclusively for itself,.then perhaps you may consider whether the remedy.will not be worse than the evil; but if it is of such a.nature that it requires you to be the agent of injustice.to another, then, I say, break the law. Let your life be.a counter friction to stop the machine. What I have.to do is to see, at any rate, that I do not lend myself to.the wrong which I condemn..As for adopting the ways which the State has.provided for remedying the evil, I know not of such.ways. They take too much time, and a man’s life will.be gone. I have other affairs to attend to. I came into.this world, not chiefly to make this a good place to.live in, but to live in it, be it good or bad. A man has.not everything to do, but something; and because he.cannot do everything, it is not necessary that he.should do something wrong.....I do not hesitate to say, that those who call.themselves Abolitionists should at once effectually.withdraw their support, both in person and property,.from the government...andnotwait till they.constitute a majority of one, before they suffer the.right to prevail through them. I think that it is.enough if they have God on their side, without.waiting for that other one. Moreover, any man more.right than his neighbors constitutes a majority of one.already.
Q: Based on the passages, one commonality in the stancesLincoln and Thoreau take toward abolitionism is that
Choices:
A.) both authors view the cause as central to their argument.
B.) both authors see the cause as warranting drastic action.
C.) neither author embraces the cause as his own.
D.) neither author expects the cause to win widespread acceptance.
Answer:

Choices:
- A
- B
- C
- D


Question:
Passage: Solar panel installations continue to grow quickly,.but the solar panel manufacturing industry is in the.doldrums because supply far exceeds demand. The.poor market may be slowing innovation, but.advances continue; judging by the mood this week at.the IEEE Photovoltaics Specialists Conference in.Tampa, Florida, people in the industry remain.optimistic about its long-term prospects..The technology that’s surprised almost everyone.is conventional crystalline silicon. A few years ago,.silicon solar panels cost $4 per watt, and.Martin Green, professor at the University of.New South Wales and one of the leading silicon solar.panel researchers, declared that they’d never go.below $1 a watt. “Now it’s down to something like 50 cents a watt, and there’s talk of hitting 36 cents per.watt,” he says..The U.S. Department of Energy has set a goal of.reaching less than $1 a watt—not just for the solar.panels, but for complete, installed systems—by 2020..Green thinks the solar industry will hit that target.even sooner than that. If so, that would bring the.direct cost of solar power to six cents per.kilowatt-hour, which is cheaper than the average cost.expected for power from new natural gas power.plants..All parts of the silicon solar panel industry have.been looking for ways to cut costs and improve the.power output of solar panels, and that’s led to steady.cost reductions. Green points to something as.mundane as the pastes used to screen-print some of.the features on solar panels. Green’s lab built a solar.cell in the 1990s that set a record efficiency for silicon.solar cells—a record that stands to this day. To.achieve that record, he had to use expensive.lithography techniques to make fine wires for.collecting current from the solar cell. But gradual.improvements have made it possible to use screen.printing to produce ever-finer lines. Recent research.suggests that screen-printing techniques can produce.lines as thin as 30 micrometers—about the width of.the lines Green used for his record solar cells, but at.costs far lower than his lithography techniques..Meanwhile, researchers at the National Renewable.Energy Laboratory have made flexible solar cells on a.new type of glass from Corning called Willow Glass,.which is thin and can be rolled up. The type of solar.cell they made is the only current challenger to.silicon in terms of large-scale production—thin-film.cadmium telluride. Flexible solar cells could lower.the cost of installing solar cells, making solar power.cheaper..One of Green’s former students and colleagues,.Jianhua Zhao, cofounder of solar panel manufacturer.China Sunergy, announced this week that he is.building a pilot manufacturing line for a two-sided.solar cell that can absorb light from both the front.and back. The basic idea, which isn’t new, is that.during some parts of the day, sunlight falls on the.land between rows of solar panels in a solar power.plant. That light reflects onto the back of the panels.and could be harvested to increase the power output..This works particularly well when the solar panels.are built on sand, which is highly reflective. Where a.one-sided solar panel might generate 340 watts, a.two-sided one might generate up to 400 watts. He.expects the panels to generate 10 to 20 percent more.electricity over the course of a year..Even longer-term, Green is betting on silicon,.aiming to take advantage of the huge reductions in.cost already seen with the technology. He hopes to.greatly increase the efficiency of silicon solar panels.by combining silicon with one or two other.semiconductors, each selected to efficiently convert a.part of the solar spectrum that silicon doesn’t convert.efficiently. Adding one semiconductor could boost.efficiencies from the 20 to 25 percent range to.around 40 percent. Adding another could make.efficiencies as high as 50 percent feasible, which.would cut in half the number of solar panels needed.for a given installation. The challenge is to produce.good connections between these semiconductors,.something made challenging by the arrangement of.silicon atoms in crystalline silicon.
Q: The passage is written from the point of view of a
Choices:
A.) hobbyist explaining the capabilities of new technology.
B.) scientist comparing competing research methods.
C.) journalist enumerating changes in a field.
D.) consumer evaluating a variety of options.
Answer:

Choices:
- A
- B
- C
- D


Question:
Passage: Solar panel installations continue to grow quickly,.but the solar panel manufacturing industry is in the.doldrums because supply far exceeds demand. The.poor market may be slowing innovation, but.advances continue; judging by the mood this week at.the IEEE Photovoltaics Specialists Conference in.Tampa, Florida, people in the industry remain.optimistic about its long-term prospects..The technology that’s surprised almost everyone.is conventional crystalline silicon. A few years ago,.silicon solar panels cost $4 per watt, and.Martin Green, professor at the University of.New South Wales and one of the leading silicon solar.panel researchers, declared that they’d never go.below $1 a watt. “Now it’s down to something like 50 cents a watt, and there’s talk of hitting 36 cents per.watt,” he says..The U.S. Department of Energy has set a goal of.reaching less than $1 a watt—not just for the solar.panels, but for complete, installed systems—by 2020..Green thinks the solar industry will hit that target.even sooner than that. If so, that would bring the.direct cost of solar power to six cents per.kilowatt-hour, which is cheaper than the average cost.expected for power from new natural gas power.plants..All parts of the silicon solar panel industry have.been looking for ways to cut costs and improve the.power output of solar panels, and that’s led to steady.cost reductions. Green points to something as.mundane as the pastes used to screen-print some of.the features on solar panels. Green’s lab built a solar.cell in the 1990s that set a record efficiency for silicon.solar cells—a record that stands to this day. To.achieve that record, he had to use expensive.lithography techniques to make fine wires for.collecting current from the solar cell. But gradual.improvements have made it possible to use screen.printing to produce ever-finer lines. Recent research.suggests that screen-printing techniques can produce.lines as thin as 30 micrometers—about the width of.the lines Green used for his record solar cells, but at.costs far lower than his lithography techniques..Meanwhile, researchers at the National Renewable.Energy Laboratory have made flexible solar cells on a.new type of glass from Corning called Willow Glass,.which is thin and can be rolled up. The type of solar.cell they made is the only current challenger to.silicon in terms of large-scale production—thin-film.cadmium telluride. Flexible solar cells could lower.the cost of installing solar cells, making solar power.cheaper..One of Green’s former students and colleagues,.Jianhua Zhao, cofounder of solar panel manufacturer.China Sunergy, announced this week that he is.building a pilot manufacturing line for a two-sided.solar cell that can absorb light from both the front.and back. The basic idea, which isn’t new, is that.during some parts of the day, sunlight falls on the.land between rows of solar panels in a solar power.plant. That light reflects onto the back of the panels.and could be harvested to increase the power output..This works particularly well when the solar panels.are built on sand, which is highly reflective. Where a.one-sided solar panel might generate 340 watts, a.two-sided one might generate up to 400 watts. He.expects the panels to generate 10 to 20 percent more.electricity over the course of a year..Even longer-term, Green is betting on silicon,.aiming to take advantage of the huge reductions in.cost already seen with the technology. He hopes to.greatly increase the efficiency of silicon solar panels.by combining silicon with one or two other.semiconductors, each selected to efficiently convert a.part of the solar spectrum that silicon doesn’t convert.efficiently. Adding one semiconductor could boost.efficiencies from the 20 to 25 percent range to.around 40 percent. Adding another could make.efficiencies as high as 50 percent feasible, which.would cut in half the number of solar panels needed.for a given installation. The challenge is to produce.good connections between these semiconductors,.something made challenging by the arrangement of.silicon atoms in crystalline silicon.
Q: According to the passage, two-sided solar panels will likelyraise efficiency by
Choices:
A.) being reasonably inexpensive to manufacture.
B.) requiring little energy to operate.
C.) absorbing reflected light.
D.) preventing light from reaching the ground.
Answer:

Choices:
- A
- B
- C
- D


Question:
Passage: Solar panel installations continue to grow quickly,.but the solar panel manufacturing industry is in the.doldrums because supply far exceeds demand. The.poor market may be slowing innovation, but.advances continue; judging by the mood this week at.the IEEE Photovoltaics Specialists Conference in.Tampa, Florida, people in the industry remain.optimistic about its long-term prospects..The technology that’s surprised almost everyone.is conventional crystalline silicon. A few years ago,.silicon solar panels cost $4 per watt, and.Martin Green, professor at the University of.New South Wales and one of the leading silicon solar.panel researchers, declared that they’d never go.below $1 a watt. “Now it’s down to something like 50 cents a watt, and there’s talk of hitting 36 cents per.watt,” he says..The U.S. Department of Energy has set a goal of.reaching less than $1 a watt—not just for the solar.panels, but for complete, installed systems—by 2020..Green thinks the solar industry will hit that target.even sooner than that. If so, that would bring the.direct cost of solar power to six cents per.kilowatt-hour, which is cheaper than the average cost.expected for power from new natural gas power.plants..All parts of the silicon solar panel industry have.been looking for ways to cut costs and improve the.power output of solar panels, and that’s led to steady.cost reductions. Green points to something as.mundane as the pastes used to screen-print some of.the features on solar panels. Green’s lab built a solar.cell in the 1990s that set a record efficiency for silicon.solar cells—a record that stands to this day. To.achieve that record, he had to use expensive.lithography techniques to make fine wires for.collecting current from the solar cell. But gradual.improvements have made it possible to use screen.printing to produce ever-finer lines. Recent research.suggests that screen-printing techniques can produce.lines as thin as 30 micrometers—about the width of.the lines Green used for his record solar cells, but at.costs far lower than his lithography techniques..Meanwhile, researchers at the National Renewable.Energy Laboratory have made flexible solar cells on a.new type of glass from Corning called Willow Glass,.which is thin and can be rolled up. The type of solar.cell they made is the only current challenger to.silicon in terms of large-scale production—thin-film.cadmium telluride. Flexible solar cells could lower.the cost of installing solar cells, making solar power.cheaper..One of Green’s former students and colleagues,.Jianhua Zhao, cofounder of solar panel manufacturer.China Sunergy, announced this week that he is.building a pilot manufacturing line for a two-sided.solar cell that can absorb light from both the front.and back. The basic idea, which isn’t new, is that.during some parts of the day, sunlight falls on the.land between rows of solar panels in a solar power.plant. That light reflects onto the back of the panels.and could be harvested to increase the power output..This works particularly well when the solar panels.are built on sand, which is highly reflective. Where a.one-sided solar panel might generate 340 watts, a.two-sided one might generate up to 400 watts. He.expects the panels to generate 10 to 20 percent more.electricity over the course of a year..Even longer-term, Green is betting on silicon,.aiming to take advantage of the huge reductions in.cost already seen with the technology. He hopes to.greatly increase the efficiency of silicon solar panels.by combining silicon with one or two other.semiconductors, each selected to efficiently convert a.part of the solar spectrum that silicon doesn’t convert.efficiently. Adding one semiconductor could boost.efficiencies from the 20 to 25 percent range to.around 40 percent. Adding another could make.efficiencies as high as 50 percent feasible, which.would cut in half the number of solar panels needed.for a given installation. The challenge is to produce.good connections between these semiconductors,.something made challenging by the arrangement of.silicon atoms in crystalline silicon.
Q: The last sentence of the passage mainly serves to
Choices:
A.) identify a hurdle that must be overcome.
B.) express concern about the limitations of a material.
C.) introduce a potential new area of study.
D.) make a prediction about the effective use of certain devices.
Answer:

Choices:
- A
- B
- C
- D