7/5/25
It’s difficult to describe how excited I was when two veteran mountain climbers asked me to join them for a winter attempt on Gasherbrum II, one of the tallest peaks in the Himalayas. Like any adventurous activity, mountaineering has hazards. They must find someone who can tolerate extremely challenging conditions—frostbite burns, intense hunger, the loss of feeling in fingers and toes, overwhelming weariness—all while maintaining the will to push forward.
Which of the following true statements provides the most appropriate transition between the previous sentence and the information that follows?
A. NO CHANGE
B. Mountaineers must choose their climbing partners with extreme care.
C. Personal preparedness and skill development are very important.
D. Instructors teach many skills, including the fundamentals of survival in a cold environment.
Although this question is phrased in terms of transitions, the easiest way to answer it is to focus on the information that follows the underlined statement. That statement must logically set up the information that follows. In this case, the following sentence refers to the fact that [climbers] must find someone who can tolerate some very challenging conditions. Logically, the underlined sentence must indicate who that “someone” who must be found is — otherwise, the following sentence does not make sense. The choices that refer to specific people are (B) (mountaineers) and (D) (instructors). (B) is correct because mountaineers must logically choose partners who can withstand such difficult conditions. Given that the narrator states that s/he was invited to join two veteran mountain climbers, the reference to instructors does not make sense — the narrator is describing a partnership, not a student/teacher scenario.
7/4/25
Many marine animals are large, rare, elusive, and highly mobile. Sharks are an obvious example: in the oceans they make up a small proportion of the biomass, are difficult to catch, and they have been in conflict with humans for thousands of years.
A. NO CHANGE
B. have been
C. having been
D. being
The underlined portion involves the third item in a list, so the format of this item must match the format of the previous two. (C) and (D) do not match either of the first two items at all and can be eliminated right away. Be careful with (A): although the construction pronoun + verb (they have been) is the same as in the first item (they make up), this answer does not match the second item, which begins with a verb alone (are). As a result, this answer is incorrect. Although (B) may appear to contain the same problem, in fact it is acceptable. The pronoun they before the first item can in fact “apply” to the verbs in the following items, making it unnecessary to repeat the pronoun. (B) is thus correct.
7/3/25
We know a lot about carbon, the element that forms the chemical backbone of life, in our crust and oceans. We know far less about it in the Earth’s core and mantle. So far, it’s proved challenging to sample the mantle, which extends up to 1,800 miles below the surface and plays a huge yet mysterious role in the global carbon cycle.
A. NO CHANGE
B. surface, and plays a huge yet mysterious,
C. surface and plays a huge, yet mysterious
D. surface, and plays a huge yet mysterious,
Comma + and = period, so plug in a period in place of and: So far, it’s proved challenging to sample the mantle, which extends up to 1,800 miles below the surface. Plays a huge yet mysterious role in the global carbon cycle. Clearly, the second statement is not a sentence, so the comma before and is incorrect. That eliminates (B) and (D). (C) is also incorrect because when two adjectives are separated by but or yet, no comma should be used between them. (A) is correct because no punctuation is necessary in the underlined section.
7/2/25
If you’ve heard the term “grazer” before, it may bring to mind familiar farm animals, such as cows or sheep munching on pastureland. But the ocean has its own suite of grazers, one with very different — even bizarre — body forms and feeding techniques.
A. NO CHANGE
B. animals such as cows or sheep,
C. animals such as cows or sheep
D. animals such as: cows or sheep
(A) is incorrect because the comma before such would logically seem to begin a non-essential phrase (such as cows or sheep), but there is no second comma to end the phrase. (B) contains the opposite error: a comma is placed at the end of the non-essential phrase, but there is no comma at the beginning. (D) is incorrect because a colon must be placed after a complete, standalone thought, and If you’ve heard the term “grazer” before, it may bring to mind familiar farm animals, such as clearly cannot stand on its own as a sentence. Although the phrase such as cows and sheep can be treated non-essentially, it does not need to be. As a result, the commas are optional; it is also acceptable not to use any punctuation. (C) is thus correct.
7/1/25
Five decades into his life, Phineas Taylor Barnum from Bethel, Connecticut, had risen above his humble beginnings as an impoverished country boy and become a showman—indeed, the “greatest showman” (as he would claim) of his generation. Thanks to a combination of brilliant marketing tactics and less-than-upstanding business practices, Barnum had truly arrived, and with his book Humbugs of the World, published in 1865, he wanted to inform you, his audience, that he hadn’t achieved his rags-to-riches success story by scamming the public.
The use of parentheses in the underlined portion is most likely intended to
A. distinguish Barnum’s exact words from the surrounding description of his life.
B. emphasize the obstacles that Barnum overcame to achieve success.
C. illustrate the pride that Barnum took in his career.
D. suggest that Barnum may have exaggerated his accomplishments.
To answer this question, you must focus on the wording of the information in the parentheses. In context of the fact that Barnum was a showman given to less-than-upstanding business practices, the phrase as he would claim serves to emphasize the idea that Barnum was given to making over-the-top statements about his achievements, i.e., that he “may have exaggerated his accomplishments.” That makes the answer (D). (A) is incorrect because the information in the parentheses is not a direct quote. (B) is off-topic because the information in the parentheses has nothing to do with Barnum’s rags-to-riches story. Be careful with (C), though: it is obvious from the passage that Barnum took pride in his career, but the focus of the parenthetical information is on Barnum’s outsized claim about his accomplishments.
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