6/30/24
In 1998, excavators digging on North Carolina’s remote Hatteras Island uncovered a tattered ring emblazoned with a prancing lion. A local jeweler determined that the ring was gold, however, it soon became clear that this was more than just a buried treasure. After careful examination, a British heraldry expert linked the ring to the Kendall family involved in the ill-fated Roanoke voyages.
A. NO CHANGE
B. gold, however
C. gold however,
D. gold, but
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6/29/24
Octopuses, those highly intelligent but bizarre cephalopods, seem to embody everything creepy and mysterious about the sea. The thought of their soft, squishy, bodies lurking in the oceans’ dark reaches has inspired monsters ranging from the Kraken to the Caribbean Lusca.
A. NO CHANGE
B. soft, squishy bodies
C. soft squishy, bodies
D. soft, squishy bodies,
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6/28/24
During a rough North Dakota winter some 100 years ago, members of the Lakota tribe living in Fort Yates created art that captured scenes from their everyday life. Using watercolor and colored pencil, they constructed vivid scenes of hunting, dancing, and community life. The drawings are part of a larger project providing access to more than 200,000 documents and images offering a peek into early American history and westward expansion.
If the writer were to delete the underlined portion (adjusting the punctuation accordingly), the passage would primarily lose
A. information about the materials used to produce the drawings.
B. a description of a vivid scene depicted in the drawings.
C. an explanation of the role of art in early American history.
D. a discussion of specific techniques used to produce the drawings.
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6/27/24
Relativity dictates that time, like a strange syrup, flows more slowly on moving trains than in the stations and faster in the mountains than in the valleys. The time for our wristwatch or digital screen, is not exactly the same as the time for our head.
A. NO CHANGE
B. wristwatch or digital screen—
C. wristwatch, or digital screen
D. wristwatch or digital screen
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6/26/24
Designing and building a hotel suite is no easy endeavor. Now imagine designing and creating one out of ice. Since 1990, the Icehotel in Jukkasjärvi, Sweden, rebuilds itself north of the Arctic Circle each winter, creating a tourist destination made entirely out of ice and snow.
A. NO CHANGE
B. has rebuilt
C. had rebuilt
D. rebuilt
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6/25/24
Even when you are asleep, your brain cells continuously buzz with a low level of electrical activity akin to white noise on the radio. Occasionally, this electrical clamor reaches a threshold that triggers the firing of neurons. New research suggests that when random firing occurs in the wake-promoting neurons, a person briefly jerks awake. But that is countered by a suite of sleep-promoting neurons that helps him or her fall quickly back to sleep.
A. NO CHANGE
B. one
C. you
D. us
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6/24/24
Driverless cars “perceive” the world around them using lasers, radar, GPS and other sensors, but their perceptions can be very different from those of human eyes. At the same time, their active response times can be extremely fast—or sometimes even excessive slowly—when compared to the speed of human intervention.
A. NO CHANGE
B. excessively slow
C. excessively slowly
D. excessive slowly
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6/23/24
You probably don’t remember, but you woke up at least 100 times last night. These spontaneous disruptions, each lasts less than 15 seconds, occur roughly every five minutes and don’t seem to affect how well-rested you feel. They are unrelated to waking up from a bad dream. Instead, they seem to be linked to some internal biological mechanism.
A. NO CHANGE
B. each of them lasts
C. each one lasts
D. each lasting
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6/22/23
To travel westward across the United States is to experience a striking landscape metamorphosis. Stately hardwood trees give way to squat shrubs, verdant cornfields to brown wheat, and lush grasslands with cacti and creosote bush. The air dries out, and the land is often parched.
A. NO CHANGE
B. grasslands have
C. grasslands for
D. grasslands to
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6/21/24
Light enables us to see, but it affects many other body systems as well. In the morning, light advances our internal clock, while light at night delays the clock, making us more inclined to remain awake. Light also suppresses a hormone called melatonin, which signals to the rest of the body that it’s night-time, including the parts regulating sleep.
A. NO CHANGE
B. to the rest of the body that it’s night-time, which includes the parts regulating sleep.
C. that it’s night-time to the rest of the body, this includes the parts that regulate sleep.
D. that it’s night-time to the rest of the body, including the parts that regulate sleep.
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6/20/24
Every night, trillions of sea creatures—whales, jellyfish, swarms of shrimp, and plankton, take part in what some call the largest mass migration on the planet. From depths of at least 2,000 feet, they swim to the ocean’s surface, in a wave of animals that propagates as the sun sets around the planet. By daylight, they return below.
A. NO CHANGE
B. whales; jellyfish, and swarms of shrimp and plankton,
C. whales, jellyfish, swarms of shrimp, and plankton—
D. whales, jellyfish, swarms of shrimp, and plankton
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6/19/24
The world in which Picasso lived was particularly supportive of his developing celebrity. His family cultivated his creative passion, he had clusters of peers who inspired him, and he had the good fortune to be born at a time when new ideas in science, literature, and music energized his work. However, the advent of mass media allowed him to achieve widespread fame.
A. NO CHANGE
B. In contrast,
C. In fact,
D. Moreover,
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6/18/24
Although quite different from one another, humans, plants and some fungi share gravitropism, the ability to know up from down. This trait helps us survive by sensing Earth’s gravitational pull, humans can move around without getting dizzy, and plants and fungi can obtain nutrients and reproduce.
A. NO CHANGE
B. survive; by sensing Earth’s gravitational pull—
C. survive: by sensing Earth’s gravitational pull,
D. survive, by sensing Earth’s gravitational pull,
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6/17/24
Spider webs come in many forms, from the trampoline-like construction of the sheet web spider to the instantly recognizable filigree of the orb weaver. Orb-style webs are made by diverse spiders, however, and there are two different types: one that’s sticky and one that’s not.
Which of the following is the LEAST acceptable alternative to the underlined portion?
A. one sticky and one not.
B. one is sticky, and the other is not.
C. one sticky, the other one that’s not.
D. one of them is sticky, and the other is not.
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6/16/24
For millennia, humans lived in synchrony with the natural cycle of light and dark. This doesn’t mean that everyone went to sleep as soon as the sun set. Studies of pre-industrial societies, such as tribes living in Tanzania or Bolivia today, suggest that people stay up for several hours after dark, often socializing by firelight. In fact, the amount of sleep they get is quite like people in industrialized countries, but the timing is more in line with the natural cycle of day and night: they tend to go to bed earlier and get up just before dawn.
The passage implies that people in industrialized countries
A. sleep for shorter periods than people in pre-industrial societies.
B. have sleep patterns that are less in sync with the natural light cycle.
C. tend to go to bed shortly after dark.
D. socialize after dark as a way of avoiding sleep.
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6/15/24
The microbial denizens of Monterey Canyon are far different from many of it’s surface-dwelling cousins, making food out of rocks and dead debris and harvesting energy from methane that seeps out from the ocean floor. To survive in this dark, high-pressure, low-oxygen, low-nutrient environment, they form all kinds of cooperative relationships.
A. NO CHANGE
B. its
C. they’re
D. their
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6/14/24
People with synesthesia are able to associate the perception of color with letters and numbers. This condition is often described as _______ of the senses – one that allows a person to see sounds or hear colors.
A. a refusal
B. a distribution
C. a collaboration
D. an estimate
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6/13/24
For Deborah Willis, the photograph is an instrument of memory that can be used to explore the value of self, family, and memory in documenting everyday life. She first became aware of the photograph as an important storytelling device as a young girl growing up in Philadelphia; today, she is a renowned photographer who uses her work to convey stories about family life.
A. NO CHANGE
B. self, family and, memory
C. self, family and memory,
D. self family and memory
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6/12/24
Like mathematicians, poets create layers of meaning by utilizing words and images that have multiple interpretations and associations. Both mathematicians and poets strive for economy and precision, they select exactly the words they need to convey their meaning.
A. NO CHANGE
B. precision, selecting
C. precision and selects
D. precision, but they select
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6/11/24
The Earth outside your window might appear quiet, but that’s because you’re looking at a tiny slice in time and space. Expand your view, and you’ll see plates shift, earthquakes ripple, and volcanoes erupting along tectonic boundaries.
A. NO CHANGE
B. that erupt
C. erupt
D. erupted
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6/10/24
It took only ten minutes for Harvey Ball to create the smiley face. It is now an iconic image with two black marks for eyes and a black grin on a bright yellow background. After Ball presented his work to the State Mutual Life Assurance Company, which had commissioned the image to boost employee morale, he was paid just $45 for his work.
Which of the following would NOT be an acceptable alternative to the underlined portion?
A. face—a now-iconic image
B. face: a now-iconic image
C. face; a now-iconic image
D. face, now an iconic image
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6/9/23
In a recent study, researchers at Penn State solicited the school’s faculty, staff and students to complete a series of online questionnaires about their fitness, commuting habits, and comfort and ability on a bike or as pedestrians. Only a few of the 505 respondents went by foot or bike. Most of whom were students.
A. NO CHANGE
B. bike, most of whom
C. bike, and most of whom
D. bike, most of them
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6/8/24
After swimming for years in a giant loop from nesting grounds in North Carolina and Florida to North Africa, sea turtles find their way back to nest on beaches within about 50 miles of where they were born. A new study suggests that the turtles are able to accomplish this feat by “memorizing” their home beach’s distinctive magnetic signature through a process known as geomagnetic imprinting.
A. NO CHANGE
B. there home beaches’
C. their home beaches
D. they’re home beach’s
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6/7/24
In 2008, chunks of space rock crashed in the Sudanese desert. Now, scientists believe that diamonds discovered inside one of the recovered meteorites might of come from a destroyed planet that orbited our sun billions of years ago. If their hypothesis is confirmed, it would be the first time anyone has recovered fragments from one of our solar system’s so-called “lost” planets.
A. NO CHANGE
B. might of came
C. might have come
D. might have came
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6/6/24
It was one of the shortest train rides I had ever taken: just 10 minutes and one stop from the Swiss city of Neuchatel. When I disembarked, everything seemed different at first, I couldn’t put my finger on what was strange. Perhaps it was something about the architecture? People’s body language? Even the air, crisp and fresh, felt somehow changed.
A. NO CHANGE
B. different, at first
C. different, so at first
D. different, but at first
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6/5/24
It was one of the shortest train rides I had ever taken: just 10 minutes and one stop from the Swiss city of Neuchatel. When I disembarked, everything seemed different at first, I couldn’t put my finger on what was strange. Perhaps it was something about the architecture? People’s body language? Even the air, crisp and fresh, felt somehow changed.
A. NO CHANGE
B. different, at first
C. different, so at first
D. different, but at first
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6/4/24
Some people can’t see differences in colors—so-called color blindness—because of a defect or absence of cones: cells in the retina that are sensitive to high levels of light. However, the distribution and density of these cells also varies across people with “normal” vision, causing everyone to experience the same color in a slightly different way.
A. NO CHANGE
B. vary
C. has varied
D. would vary
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6/3/24
On his first and only visit to Japan, in the late fall of 1922, Albert Einstein was wowed by the beauty of the country and the refinement of the culture. The populace was equally impressed by the visitor, greeting him on his arrival in Kobe with great fanfare. Einstein was, after all, not just the era’s best-known scientist, but arguably the most famous person in the world.
A. NO CHANGE
B. captivated
C. tickled pink
D. knocked out
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6/2/24
The modern concept of bike sharing – offering bikes for short-term public rental from multiple stations in cities – originated in Copenhagen in 1995. When bikeshares began to be implemented in the United States more than a decade later, they encountered some stumbling blocks. Washington, D.C., led the way, launching SmartBike in 2008. Two years later, in response to increasing demand from suburban dwellers, it began offering an expanded network called Capital Bikeshare, which now boasts over 480 stations and a daily ridership of 5,700.
Which choice provides information that is most relevant at this point in the paragraph?
A. NO CHANGE
B. remained limited in scope.
C. met with resistance from drivers.
D. quickly grew in popularity.
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6/1/24
The Bajau people are able to dive dozens of feet underwater without conventional diving aids such as wetsuits and oxygen tanks. Instead, they rely on weights, handmade wooden goggles, and taking a single breath of air.
A. NO CHANGE
B. they take
C. take
D. DELETE the underlined word.
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