Comfort Ratings and Temperature-Adjustment Preferences from One Survey 

Nan Gao and her team conducted multiple surveys to determine participants’ levels of comfort in a room where the temperature was regulated by a commercial climate control system. Participants filled out surveys several times a day to indicate their level of comfort on a scale from (very cold) to (very hot), with 0 indicating neutral (neither warm nor cool), and to indicate how they would prefer the temperature to be adjusted. The table shows three participants’ responses in one of the surveys. According to the table, all three participants wanted the room to be cooler, ______

Which choice most effectively uses data from the table to complete the statement? 

Archaeologists have been debating the origin of a rare form of lead found in Shang dynasty (1766-1046 BCE) bronze artifacts since its presence was discovered in China in the 1990s. Different researchers have proposed theories on which regions of the world would have had the raw materials containing the specific lead in these artifacts, but no conclusive evidence has been presented. What is intriguing is that bronze artifacts from China dated after the Shang dynasty do not contain this form of lead, suggesting that ________

Which choice most logically completes the text?

"Mr. Cornelius Johnson, Office-Seeker" is a 1900 short story by Paul Laurence Dunbar. In the story, the narrator describes Mr. Cornelius Johnson's appearance as conveying his exaggerated sense of his importance: ________

Which quotation from "Mr. Cornelius Johnson, Office-Seeker" most effectively illustrates the claim?

Archaeologists have held that the Casarabe culture, which emerged in the southwestern Amazon basin in the first millennium CE, was characterized by a sparse, widely distributed population and little intervention in the surrounding wilderness. Recently, however, archaeological Heiko Prumers and colleagues conducted a study of the region using remote-sensing technology that enabled them to create three-dimensional images of the jungle-covered landscape from above, and the researchers concluded that the Casarabe people developed a form of urbanism in the Amazon basin.

Which finding about the remote-sensing images, if true, would most directly support Prumers and colleagues' conclusion?

For many years, the only existing fossil evidence of mixopterid evurypterids--an extinct family of large aquatic arthropods known as sea scorptions and related to modern archnids and horseshoe crabs--came from four species living on the paleocontinent of Laurussia. In a discovery that expands our understanding of the geographical distribution of mixopterids, paleontologist Bo Wang and others have identified fossilized remains of a new mixopterid species, Terroopterus xiushanensis, that lived over 400 million years ago on the paleocontinent of Gondwana.

According to the text, why was Wang and his team's discovery of the Terroopterus xiushanensis fossil significant?

Scientists studying Mars long thought the history of its crust was relatively simple. One reason for this is that geologic and climate data collected by a spacecraft showed that the crust was largely composed of basalt, likely as a result of intense volcanic activity that brought about a magma ocean, which then cooled to form the planet's surface. A study led by Valerie Payre focused on additional information--further analysis of data collected by the spacecraft and infrared wavelengths detected from Mars's surface--that revealed the presence of surprisingly high concentrations of silica in certain regions on Mars. Since a planetary surface that formed in a mostly basaltic environment would be unlikely to contain large amounts of silica, Payre concluded that ________

Which choice most logically completes the text?

Although military veterans make up a small proportion of the total population of the United States, they occupy a significantly higher proportion of the jobs in the civilian government. One possible explanation for this disproportionate representation is that military service familiarizes people with certain organizational structures that are also reflected in the civilian government bureaucracy, and this familiarity thus _______

Which choice most logically completes the text?

In a study of the mechanisms underlying associative memory--or the ability to learn and remember connections between inherently unrelated things--neuroscientists Kei Igarashi, Jasmine Chavez, and others presented mice with memory tests. The team discovered that fan cells, a type of cell found in the medial temporal lobe of the brain, are necessary for the acquisition of new associative memories. They also found that fan cell activity requires dopamine, a chemical the brain produces in response to pleasure and rewards. Consequently, receiving a reward should likely help to _________
 
Which choice most logically completes the text?

Modern dog breeds are largely the result of 160 years of owners crossbreeding certain dogs in order to select for particular physical appearances. Owners often say that some breeds are also more likely than others to have particular personality traits--basset bounds are affectionate; boxers are easy to train--but Kathleen Morrill and colleagues found through a combination of owner surveys and DNA sequencing of 2,000 dogs that while physical traits are predictably heritable among purebred dogs, behavior varies widely among dogs of the same breed.

Which choice best states the main idea of the text?

As a monthly newsletter formed in 1969 by a group of Asian American students at the University of California, Los Angeles, Gidra helped raise awareness about social and political issues concerning the Asian American community on campus and at large. The newsletter had an expansive reach for a publication of its kind: around 4,000 copies were published each month. A student writing a history paper, however, hypothesizes that Gidra_'s influence cannot be measured by the number of newsletters published monthly alone.

Which finding, if true, would most directly support the student's hypothesis?

In 2014, Amelia Quon and her team at NASA set out to build a helicopter capable of flying on Mars. Because Mars's atmosphere is only one percent as dense as Earth's, the air of Mars would not provide enough resistance to the rotating blades of a standard helicopter for the aircraft to stay aloft. For five years, Quon's team tested designs in a lab that mimicked Mars's atmospheric conditions. The craft the team ultimately designed can fly on Mars because its blades are longer and rotate faster than those of a helicopter of the same size built for Earth.

According to the text, why would a helicopter built for Earth be unable to fly on Mars?

In West Africa, jalis have traditionally been keepers of information about family histories and records of important events. They have often served as teachers and advisers, too. New technologies may have changed some aspects of the role today, but jalis continue to be valued for knowing and protecting their peoples' stories.

Which choice best states the main idea of the text?

Archaeologist Petra Vagilova, anthropologist Xinyi Liu, and their colleagues investigated the domestication of farm animals in China during the Bronze Age (approximately 2000 to 1000 BCE). By analyzing the chemical composition of the bones of sheep, goats, and cattle from this era, the team determined that wild plants made up the bulk of sheep's and goats' diets, while the cattle's diet consisted largely of millet, a crop cultivated by humans. The team concluded that cattle were likely raised closer to human settlements, whereas sheep and goats were allowed to roam farther away.

Which finding, if true, would most strongly support the team's conclusion?

For centuries, the widespread acknowledgment of the involvement of the cerebellum--a dense brain structure in vertebrates--in coordinating motor control in humans has hindered recognition of other possible functions of the structure. Neuroscience research from the last two decades now suggests that the cerebellum regulates emotion and social behavior, and recent research by Ilaria Carta and colleagues has identified a pathway connecting the cerebellum to a center for motivation and reward processing known as the ventral tegmental area (VTA).

Which choice best states the main idea of the text?

The following text is adapted from Oscar Wilde's 1891 novel The Picture of Dorian Gray. Dorian Gray is taking his first look at a portrait that Hallward has painted of him.

Dorian passed listlessly in front of his picture and turned towards it. When he saw it he drew back, and his cheeks flushed for a moment with pleasure. A look of joy came into his eyes, as if he had recognized himself for the first time. He stood there motionless and in wonder, dimly conscious that Hallward was speaking to him, but not catching the meaning of his words. The sense of his own beauty came on him like a revelation. He had never felt it before.

According to the text, what is true about Dorian?

Several scholars have argued that conditions in England in the late ninth through early eleventh centuries--namely, burgeoning literacy amid running conflicts between England's Anglo-Saxon kingdoms and Danish invaders--were especially conducive to the production of the Old English epic poem Beowulf, and they have dated the poem's composition accordingly. It is not inconceivable that Beowulf emerged from such a context, but privileging contextual fit over the linguistic evidence of an eighth- or even seventh-century composition requires a level of justification that thus far has not been presented.

Which choice best states the main idea of the text?

German theater practitioner Bertolt Brecht (1898-1956) believed that theater should elicit an intellectual rather than an emotional response from audiences, provoking them to consider social and political realities that extend beyond the characters and events depicted onstage. Brecht's influence can be seen in English playwright Caryl Churchill's 1979 play Cloud 9_: although the play sometimes invites empathetic reactions, it primarily works to engage audiences in an interrogation of patriarchy and colonialism, which it does by placing audiences at a distance, thereby encouraging them to ________

Which choice most logically completes the text?

Average Temperatures in July in Four Locations in the Navajo Nation

The Navajo Nation has the largest land area of any tribal nation in the United States: over 27,000 square miles in the Southwest. Because this area is so huge and its communities are located at various elevations, the people of the Navajo Nation can experience different climate conditions depending on where they live. For example, in July, _________

Which choice most effectively uses data from the table to complete the statement?

Sense and Sensibility is an 1811 novel by Jane Austen. In the novel, Austen describes Marianne Dashwood's ability to persuade others of the rightness of her artistic judgments, as is evident when Marianne visits with John Willoughby, a potential suitor: ________

Which quotation from Sense and Sensibility most effectively illustrates the claim?

One aspect of in-person shopping that online shopping can't replicate is the opportunity to touch a product before buying it. Does this difference matter? In an experiment, researchers asked one group of participants to touch a mug and a toy, while another group was prohibited from touching the two items. The participants were then asked how much money they'd pay for the items. People who got to touch the items were willing to pay much more money for them than were people who weren't allowed to touch the items. This finding suggests that _______

Which choice most logically completes the text?

Philadelphia's Black Pearl Chamber Orchestra, founded by Jeri Lynne Johnson, performs classical music, from well-known compositions by Beethoven to contemporary works by Jessie Montgomery. For the orchestra's iConduct! program, Johnson invites community members to learn some basic elements of conducting and then experience conducting the Black Pearl orchestra themselves.

Which choice best states the main idea of the text?

One challenge when researching whether holding elected office changes a person's behavior is the problem of ensuring that the experiment has an appropriate control group. To reveal the effect of holding office, researchers must compare people who hold elected office with people who do not hold office but who are otherwise similar to the office-holders. Since researchers are unable to control which politicians win elections, they therefore ________

Which choice most logically completes the text?

In the 1980s, many musicians and journalists in the English-speaking world began to draw attention to music from around the globe--such as mbaqanga from South Africa and quan hg from Vietnam--that can't be easily categorized according to British or North American popular music genres, typically referring to such music as "world music." While some scholars have welcomed this development for bringing diverse musical forms to prominence in countries where they'd previously been overlooked, musicologist Su Zheng claims that the concept of world music homogenizes highly distinct traditions by reducing them all to a single category.

Which finding about mbaqanga and quan hg, if true, would most directly support Zheng's claim?

Songbirds learn to respond to and imitate their species' songs from an early age. With each generation, small differences are introduced that result in distinct variations--called dialects--among geographically isolated populations of the same species. A research study examined whether twelve-day-old Ficedula hypoleuca (pied flycatcher) nestlings prefer local dialects over the unfamiliar dialects of nonlocal F. hypoleuca populations: the more begging calls the nestlings made in response to a song, the stronger their preference. The researchers found that nestlings produced more begging calls in response to their own dialect than to nonlocal dialects. Since song preference plays a role in songbird mate selection, the finding suggests that _______

Which choice most logically completes the text?

Paleontologist Lucas E. Fiorelli and colleagues have reported the discovery at a mine in Brazil of several egg clutches, partially preserved single eggs, and egg shells from the Late Cretaceous period. The researchers have concluded that the area was once a nesting and breeding site for titanosaurs, a group of sauropod dinosaurs. The finding is significant given the previous lack of known nesting sites in northern regions of South America, which led many paleontologists to assume that titanosaurs migrated south to lay eggs.

What does the text most strongly suggest about the site discovered by the researchers?