CRITICAL
READING
Each sentence below has one or two
blanks, each blank indicating that something has been omitted. Beneath the
sentence are five words or sets of words labeled A through E. Choose the word
or set of words that, when inserted in the sentence, best fits the meaning of
the sentence as a whole.
1. Years of
------- lifting of heavy furniture had left him too ------- to be able to stand
erect for long periods of time.
(A) profitable . . dumbfounded
(B) generous . . distracted
(C) onerous . . hesitant
(D) strenuous . . debilitated
(E) unstinting . . eminent
Answer:
D
2. Critics
dismissed the engineer’s seemingly creative design as being -------, that is,
underdeveloped and
lacking in sophistication.
(A) defunct (B) unorthodox (C)
simplistic (D) erroneous (E) ambiguous
Answer:
C
3. Canadian
Lynn Johnston was named Cartoonist of the Year in 1985, the first woman to be
so ------.
(A) inspired (B) entrusted (C) honored
(D) employed (E) refined
Answer:
C
4. While
traveling near the Sun, the comet Hale-Bopp produced a ------- amount of dust,
much more than the comets Halley or Hyakutake.
(A) voracious (B) disposable (C)
redundant (D) superficial (E) prodigious
Answer:
E
5. The
professor commented to other faculty members that Sheila seemed temperamentally
suited to the study of logic, given her ------- for ------- intricate
arguments.
(A) sympathy . . influencing
(B) penchant . . evading
(C) disregard . . unhinging
(D) contempt . . following
(E) bent . . analyzing
Answer:
E
The passages below are followed by
questions based on their content; questions following a pair of related
passages may also be based on the relationship between the paired passages.
Answer the questions on the basis of what is stated or implied in the passages
and in any introductory material that may be provided.
Questions
6-9 are based on the following passages.
Passage
1
Newspaper editor and political
commentator Henry
Louis Mencken was a force of nature,
brushing aside
all objects animal and mineral in his
headlong rush
to the publicity that surely awaited
him. He seized
(line5) each day,
shook it to within an inch of its life, and
then gaily went on to the next. No
matter where his
writing appeared, it was quoted
widely, his pungently
outspoken opinions debated hotly.
Nobody else could
make so many people so angry, or make
so many others
(line 10) laugh so
hard.
6. In lines
4-5, the words “seized” and “shook” help
establish which aspect of Mencken’s
personality?
(A) His code of honor
(B) His sense of humor
(C) His vindictiveness
(D) His intensity
(E) His petulance
Answer:
D
7. The public
response described in lines 6-8 most
strongly suggests that Mencken’s
writings were
(A) authoritative
(B) controversial
(C) arrogant
(D) informal
(E) frivolous
Answer:
B
Passage
2
The ability to see the situation as
your opponents see it,
as difficult as it may be, is one of
the most important skills
that you can possess as a negotiator.
You must know more
than simply that they see things
differently. It is not
(line 5) enough to
study them like beetles under a microscope;
you need to know what it feels like to
be a beetle. To
accomplish this you should be prepared
to withhold
judgment as you “try on” their views.
Your opponents
may well believe that their views are
right as strongly
(line 10) as you
believe yours are.
8. The
reference to beetles in lines 5-6 serves to suggest that
(A) people need to be more attuned to
their surroundings
(B) effective negotiation is more of a
science than an art
(C) people can be made to do what they
would prefer not to do
(D) effective negotiation requires
identifying with a different viewpoint
(E) people feel uncomfortable when
their actions are under scrutiny
Answer:
D
9. The
primary purpose of the passage is to
(A) persuade people to defend their
positions on critical issues
(B) indicate a specific ability that
is useful in negotiation
(C) encourage people to be more
accepting of others
(D) argue that few people are fit for
the demands of negotiation
(E) suggest that negotiators should
always seek consensus
Answer:
B
Questions 10-24 are based on the following passages.
Passage 1 is from a 2003 book that
examines the famous “I Have a Dream” speech delivered by Martin Luther King,
Jr. at the historic March on Washington in August 1963. Passage 2 is from a 2000
biography of Martin Luther King, Jr. written by an African American scholar.
Passage 1
The ability of the “I Have a Dream”
speech to highlight
King’s early career at the expense of
his later career
accounts for the tone of impatience
and betrayal that often
appears when modern-day supporters of
King’s agenda talk
(line 5) about the speech. Former
Georgia state legislator Julian
Bond said in 1986 that commemorations
of King seemed to
“focus almost entirely on Martin
Luther King the dreamer,
not on Martin King the antiwar
activist, not on Martin King
the challenger of the economic order,
not on Martin King
(line 10) the opponent of apartheid,
not on the complete Martin
Luther King.” One King scholar has
proposed a ten-year
moratorium on reading or listening to
the “I Have a Dream”
speech, in the hopes that America will
then discover the
rest of King’s legacy.
(line 15) This proposal effectively
concedes that King’s magnificent
address cannot be recovered from the
misuse
and over quotation it has suffered
since his death. But
it is not clear that this is so. Even
now, upon hearing the
speech, one is struck by the many
forms of King’s genius.
(line 20) Many people can still
remember the first time they heard
“I Have a Dream,” and they tend to
speak of that memory
with the reverence reserved for a
religious experience. At
the very least, reflecting on the “I
Have a Dream” speech
should be an opportunity to be
grateful for the astonishing
(line 25) transformation of America
that the freedom movement
wrought. In just under a decade, the
civil rights movement
brought down a system of segregation
that stood
essentially unaltered since
Reconstruction. King’s dreams
of an America free from racial
discrimination are still some
(line 30) distance away, but it is
astounding how far the nation has
come since that hot August day in
1963. Segregation in
the South has been dismantled; there
are no longer
“Whites Only” signs; segregationist
governors do not
try to prevent Black children from
entering public schools.
(line 35) Toward the end of his life,
King preached a sermon entitled
“Ingratitude,” in which he called
ingratitude “one of the
greatest of all sins,” because the
sinner “fail[s] to realize
his dependence on others.” The annual
Martin Luther King
holiday is properly a day of national
thanksgiving, a time
(line 40) for the nation to recognize
the immense debt it owes to
King and the thousands of heroes of
the civil rights
movement for saving the soul of
America.
Passage 2
Martin Luther King was at his best
when he was
willing to reshape the wisdom of many
of his intellec45
tual predecessors. He ingeniously
harnessed their ideas
to his views to advocate sweeping
social change. He
believed that his early views on race
failed to challenge
America fundamentally. He later
confessed that he had
underestimated how deeply entrenched
racism was in
(line 50) America. If Black Americans
could not depend on goodwill
to create social change, they had to
provoke social
change through bigger efforts at
nonviolent direct action.
This meant that Blacks and their
allies had to obtain
political power. They also had to try
to restructure
(line 55) American society, solving
the riddles of poverty
and economic inequality.
This is not the image of King that is
celebrated on
Martin Luther King Day. Many of King’s
admirers are
uncomfortable with a focus on his
mature beliefs. They
(line 60) seek to deflect unfair
attacks on King’s legacy by shrouding
him in the cloth of superhuman
heroism. In truth, this
shroud is little more than romantic
tissue. King’s image
has often suffered a sad fate. His
strengths have been
needlessly exaggerated, his weaknesses
wildly over (line 65)
played. King’s true legacy has been
lost to cultural
amnesia. As a nation, we have
emphasized King’s
aspiration to save America through
inspiring words
and sacrificial deeds. Time and again
we replay the
powerful image of King standing on a
national stage
(line 70) in the shadow of the Lincoln
Memorial mouthing perhaps
the most famous four words ever
uttered by a Black
American: “I have a dream.” For most
Americans, those
words capture King’s unique genius.
They express his
immortal longing for freedom, a
longing that is familiar
(line 75) to every person who dares
imagine a future beyond unjust
laws and unfair customs. The edifying
universality of those
four words—who hasn’t dreamed, and who
cannot identify
with people whose dreams of a better
world are punished
with violence?—helps to explain their
durability. But those
(line 80) words survive, too, because
they comfort folk who would
rather entertain the dreams of unfree
people than confront
their rage and despair.
10. The
authors of both passages agree that King’s “I Have
a Dream” speech
(A) had significant global as well as
national influence
(B) has been imitated by many of
King’s followers
(C) had a profound impact on many
Americans
(D) was typical of King’s thought as a
whole
(E) questioned the ethical beliefs of
many Americans
Answer:
C
11. It can be
inferred that, for Julian Bond, a portrait of “the complete Martin Luther King”
(lines 10-11) would
(A) celebrate King’s influence both
within and outside the United States
(B) acknowledge the logical lapses in
some of King’s later work
(C) compare King with other
significant figures of his era
(D) achieve a balance between King’s
earlier concerns and his later ones
(E) reveal information about King’s
personal as well as his public life
Answer:
D
12. The author
of Passage 2 would most likely view Julian Bond’s statement in lines 7-11 of
Passage 1 with
(A) outright disapproval
(B) considerable surprise
(C) cynical mistrust
(D) cautious optimism
(E) complete agreement
Answer:
E
13. In line
17, “suffered” most nearly means
(A) endured
(B) felt
(C) prolonged
(D) tolerated
(E) lamented
Answer:
A
14. Lines
31-34 (“Segregation in . . . schools”) serve primarily to
(A) express ambitious hopes for the
future
(B) challenge the accuracy of
historical accounts
(C) provide a contrast with other
cultures
(D) illustrate a point with particular
examples
(E) defend a series of unusual
occurrences
Answer:
D
15. The author
of Passage 1 mentions the “sermon”
(line 35) primarily in order to
(A) show King’s effectiveness as a
public speaker
(B) demonstrate the broad range of
King’s interests
(C) illustrate an important trait that
King possessed
(D) question King’s ability to
empathize with others
(E) remind readers of a significant
obligation to King
Answer:
E
16. The author
of Passage 2 would most likely argue that commemorations focus on “Martin
Luther King the dreamer” (line 7 of Passage 1)
because people find this aspect of King to be
(A) courageous
(B) unpretentious
(C) reassuring
(D) provocative
(E) unexpected
Answer:
C
17. Which best
characterizes the overall relationship between the two passages?
(A) Passage 2 rejects the political
goals that are described in Passage 1.
(B) Passage 2 helps account for the
responses to a speech discussed in Passage 1.
(C) Passage 2 romanticizes a person
who is objectively depicted in Passage 1.
(D) Passage 2 recounts the history of
a national holiday that is celebrated in Passage 1.
(E) Passage 2 reflects on a figure who
is denounced in Passage 1.
Answer:
B
18. Unlike the
author of Passage 2, the author of Passage 1 develops his or her argument by
(A) citing an authority with whom he
or she disagrees
(B) referring to a famous speech
delivered by King
(C) discussing the universal human
trait of dreaming
(D) dismissing those who fail to understand
the subtlety of King’s thought
(E) assuming that his or her readers
are completely unfamiliar with King’s ideas
Answer:
A
2. In the figure above, CDE is an equilateral triangle and ABCE is a square with an area of 1. What is the perimeter of polygon ABCDE ?
6. If x = 20 and y = 30 in the figure above, what is the value of z ?
MATHS
NUMBER OF
PREMIUM MEMBERS
Year
|
2000
|
2001
|
2002
|
Store A
|
250
|
400
|
750
|
Store B
|
500
|
1,000
|
1,250
|
AVERAGE NUMBER OF VIDEO RENTALS PER
PREMIUM MEMBER AT STORE B
Year
|
Rentals
|
2000
|
12
|
2001
|
15
|
2002
|
20
|
1. The first
table above shows the number of premium members at two video rental stores, A
and B, during the years 2000–2002. The second table shows the average
(arithmetic mean) number of video rentals per premium member at store B during
each of those years. Based on this information, which of the following best
approximates the total number of video rentals by premium members at Store B
during the years 2000–2002?
(A) 24,000
(B) 46,000
(C) 58,000
(D) 70,000
(E) 130,000
Answer:
B
2. In the figure above, CDE is an equilateral triangle and ABCE is a square with an area of 1. What is the perimeter of polygon ABCDE ?
(A) 4
(B) 5
(C) 6
(D) 7
(E) 8
Answer:
B
3. Two
spheres, one with radius 7 and one with radius 4, are tangent to each other. If
P is any point on one sphere and Q is any point on the other
sphere, what is the maximum possible length of PQ ?
(A) 7
(B) 11
(C) 14
(D) 18
(E) 22
Answer:
E
4. If (2m)k
= 6, then mk =
(A) 3
(B) 4
(C) 5
(D) 6
(E) 12
Answer:
A
5. If 3 times a number is equal to 3/2, what is the number?
(A) 1/3
(B) 1/2
(C) 2/3
(D) 2
(E) 3
Answer: B
6. If x = 20 and y = 30 in the figure above, what is the value of z ?
(A) 60
(B) 70
(C) 80
(D) 90
(E) 100
Answer:
B
7. The graph
above shows the number of George’s unsold candy bars over a 10-day period. The
points on the graph all lie on which of the
following lines?
(A) y = 10x - 120
(B) y = 10x + 120
(C) y = 12x - 120
(D) y = 120 - 10x
(E) y = 120 - 12x
Answer:
E
8. If x and y are integers, 7 < y < 16, and x/y = 2/5, how many possible values are there for x ?(A) One
(B) Two
(C) Three
(D) Four
(E) Five
Answer: B
9. In triangle ABC above, AB = AC, E is the midpoint of line AB, and D is the midpoint of line AC. If AE = x and ED = 4, what is length BC ?
(A) 6
(B) 8
(C) 2x
(D) 4x
(E) 4x2
Answer: B
10. Two spheres, one with radius 7 and one with radius 4, are tangent to each other. If P is any point on one sphere and Q is any point on the other sphere, what is the maximum possible length of line PQ?
(A) 7
(B) 11
(C) 14
(D) 18
(E) 22
Answer: E