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No act is done purely for the benefit of
Claim: others
All actions—even those that seem to be done
for other people—are based on self-interest.
Reason-
Write a response in which you discuss the extent to which you agree or disagree with the claim and the reason on which that claim is based.
The following appeared in a letter from the owner of the Sunnyside Towers apartment complex to its manager.
"Last week, all the showerheads in the first three buildings of the Sunnyside Towers complex were modified to restrict maximum water flow to one-third of what it used to be. Although actual readings of water usage before and after the adjustment are not yet available, the change will obviously result in a considerable savings for Sunnyside Corporation, since the corporation must pay for water each month. Except for a few complaints about low water pressure, no problems with showers have been reported since the adjustment. Clearly, modifying showerheads to restrict water flow throughout all twelve buildings in the Sunnyside Towers complex will increase our profits further."
Write a response in which you examine the stated and or unstated assumptions of the argument. Be sure to explain how the argument depends on these assumptions and what the implications are for the argument if the assumptions prove unwarranted.
A list of the names of the people of the entire 1990 foreign-born population in neighborhood V was generated, with each person's name appearing once. The names of 2 different people will be randomly selected from the list. Which of the following is closest to the probability that both names selected will be names of people whose region of origin was "Other"?
Recent studies of the gender gap in the history of United States politics tend to focus on candidate choice rather than on registration and turnout. This shift in focus away from gender inequality in political participation may be due to the finding in several studies of voting behavior in the United States that since 1980. differences in rates of registration and voting between men and women are not statistically significant after controlling for traditional predictors of participation. However. Fullerton and Stern argue that researchers have overlooked the substantial gender gap in registration and voting in the South. While the gender gap in participation virtually disappeared outside the South by the 1950s, substantial gender differences persisted in the South throughout the 1950s and 1960s, only beginning to decline in the 1970s.
The passage is primarily concerned with
Though humanitarian emergencies are frequent features of television news, such exposure seldom_________the public, which rather seems resigned to a sense of impotency.
The following appeared in a letter to the editor of a Batavia newspaper
"The department of agriculture in Batavia reports that the number of dairy farms throughout the country is now 25 percent greater than it was 10 years ago. Dunne this same time period, however, the price of milk at the local Excello Food Market has increased from SI.50 to over S3.00 per gallon. To prevent farmers from continuing to receive excessive profits on an apparently increased supply of milk, the Batavia government should begin to regulate retail milk prices Such regulation is necessary to ensure fair prices for consumers."
Write a response in which you discuss what questions would need to be answered in order to decide whether the recommendation is likely to have the predicted result Be sure to explain how the answers to these questions would help to evaluate the recommendation
Colleges and universities should require their students to spend at least one semester studying in a foreign country.
Write a response in which you discuss the extent to which you agree or disagree with (lie claim. In developing and supporting your position- be sure to address the most compelling reasons and or examples that could be used to challenge your position.
The average (arithmetic mean) and the median of a set of 5 numbers is 0. and the set contains at least one number that is not equal to 0. Which of the following statements must be true?
The following appeared as a letter to the editor from the owner of a skate shop in Central Plaza.
"Two years ago the city council voted to prohibit skateboarding in Central Plaza. They claimed that skateboard users were responsible for litter and vandalism that were keeping other visitors from coming to the plaza. In the past two years, however, there has been only a small increase in the number of visitors to Central Plaza. and litter and vandalism are still problematic. Skateboarding is permitted in Monroe Park, however, and there is no problem with litter or vandalism there. In order to restore Central Plaza to its former glory, then, we recommend that the city lift its prohibition on skateboarding in the plaza."
Write a response in which you discuss what questions would need to be answered in order to decide whether the recommendation and the argument on which it is based are reasonable. Be sure to explain how the answers to these questions would help to evaluate the recommendation.
The following appeared in a memo from the president of Bower Builders, a company that constructs new homes.
"A nationwide survey reveals that the two most-desired home features are a large family room and a large, well-appointed kitchen. A number of homes in our area built by our competitor Domus Construction have such features and have sold much faster and at significantly higher prices than the national average. To boost sales and profits, we should increase the size of the family rooms and kitchens in all the homes we build and should make state-of-the-art kitchens a standard feature. Moreover, our larger family rooms and kitchens can come at the expense of the dining room, since many of our recent buyers say they do not need a separate dining room for family meals."
Write a response in which you examine the stated and or unstated assumptions of the argument. Be sure to explain how the argument depends on these assumptions and what the implications are for the argument if the assumptions prove unwarranted.
In a sequence of 300 numbers, the first number is 3. the second is 5. and each succeeding number is equal to the sum of the previous two numbers in the sequence. If a number is to be randomly selected from the sequence, what is the probability that the number selected will be odd?
A)
B)
C)
D)
E)
If the ratio of positive integer x to positive integer y is 4 to 3, then x + y must be a multiple of integer k. where k > I. What is the value of k ?
How many noncongruent triangles are there such that the length of each side of each triangle is an integer and the perimeter of each triangle is 15 ?
Laws protecting intellectual properly are intended to stimulate creativity, yet some tonus of creative work have never enjoyed legal protection—a situation that ought to be of great interest. If we see certain forms of creative endeavor (1)_________as a result of uncontrolled copying, we might decide tot (ii )_________intellectual property law. Conversely, if unprotected creative work (iii)_________in the absence of legal rules against copying, we would do well to know how such flourishing is sustained.
The danger often facing authors of satirical works is that if the audience is not (i)_________the joke, the piece may
end up (ii)_________the behavior it was trying to (iii)_________.
Of the S3 members of a certain club. 48 members enjoy boating and $3 members enjoy fishing. If all except 10 of the members of the club enjoy boating or fishing or both, how many members enjoy boating but not fishing?
Al a certain high school. 90 percent of seniors who take physics also take calculus and 60 percent of seniors who take calculus also take physics. If 30 percent of seniors at the school take physics, what percent of seniors take calculus?
In triangle ABC, AB = 9 and BC = 12- Which of the following values could be the perimeter of triangle ABC?
Indicate all such values.
Of the 67 children residing on a certain street, 52 children enjoy biking and 21 children enjoy roller-skating. If all but 5 of the children enjoy biking or roller-skating or both, how many of the children enjoy either biking or roller-skating, but not both biking and roller-skating?
At a grocery store. Joe bought n bottles of a certain shampoo for a total price of SI 2.00. At a drugstore, Ann bought In bottles of the same shampoo for a total price of $16.00.
A certain train will travel from City A to City B. and then back to City A along the same route. The train is scheduled to spend a total of T hours traveling lime for the round-trip. The train travels from City A to City B in 13 hours, traveling at an average speed of 25 miles per hour. If the train is to arrive exactly on schedule, at what average speed must the train travel from City B to City A ?
A)
B)
C)
D)
E)
If x and v in the equation shown are numbers that satisfy y < 0 and |x| = |y|, which of the following must be the value of x ?
An investor purchased two properties. A and B. The investor later sold property A at a selling price that was 20 percent more than the purchase price of A. and the investor sold property B at a selling price that was 40 percent less than the purchase price of B. If the combined purchase price of properties A and B was S200.000 and the combined selling price was S210.000. what was the selling price of property A ?
Dunne a certain month. 20 percent of all the electricity used by a household was used by the water heater. The cost per kilowatt-hour of the electricity used by the water heater was half the cost per kilowatt-hour of the rest of the electricity used. For that month, the cost of the electricity used by the water heater was what traction of the cost of the electricity used by the household?
A)
B)
C)
D)
In the circle with center O, if the length of minor arc MP is 3π, what is the area of square region MOPQ ?
Stations A. M. and B are located along a certain train route, and Station M is between Stations A and B. At noon, a train engine passed Station A traveling at a constant speed of SO kilometers per hour toward Station B. Also at noon, another train engine passed Station B traveling at a constant speed of 60 kilometers per hour toward Station A . Botli train engines passed Station M at the same time. What is the ratio of the distance along the route between Stations A and .1/ to the distance along the route between Stations A and B ?
A)
B)
C)
D)
E)
If one item is tobe randomly selected from the items whose manufacturing cost is greater than $140. what is the probability that the item selected will be one whose manufacturing time is greater than 60 minutes?
A)
B)
C)
D)
E)
The following appeared in a letter to the editor of a Batavia newspaper
"The department of agriculture in Batavia reports that the number of dairy farms throughout the country is now 25 percent greater than it was 10 years ago. During this same time period, however, the price of milk at the local Excello Food Market has increased from SI.50 to over $3.00 per gallon. To prevent farmers from continuing to receive excessive profits on an apparently increased supply of milk, the Batavia government should begin to regulate retail milk prices Such regulation is necessary to ensure fair prices for consumers."
Write a response in which you discuss what questions would need to be answered in order to decide whether the recommendation is likely to have the predicted result Be sure to explain how the answers to these questions would help to evaluate the recommendation
Claim: Governments must ensure that their major cities receive the financial support they need in order to thrive.
Reason: It is primarily in cities that a nation's cultural traditions are preserved and generated.
Write a response in which you discuss the extent to which you agree or disagree with the claim and the reason on which that claim is based.
When Flemish painter Anthony Van Dyck moved to England in 1632 to become court painter to Charles The introduced an entirely new way of representing dress in portraiture. In women's portraits. he left off fashionable accessories, depicted subjects in unbuttoned sleeves and collars, and added lavish drapery and jewels. For the first time an artist actively participated in dressing his subjects, creating an amalgam of fantasy and reality. While Van Dyck was most innovative when representing women, he used similar elements in portraits of men.
Van Dyck's Portrait of Thomas Killigrew and Willian. Lord Crofts (1638) demonstrates how the artist relaxed and unbuttoned men's dress to accord with an underlying theme. The double portrait may be seen as an essay in grief: Killigrew. a poet and playwright, had lost his wife Cecelia to the plague shortly before the sitting, and Crofts was her nephew. The painting contains clear references to the situation at hand. The background features a broken column, a traditional emblem of earthly transience. A drawing in Killigrew's right hand depicts two Itinerary monuments. Crofts holds a blank sheet of paper, seen by some scholars as an analog to the drawing Killigrew holds: a symbol of what is gone.
At historians have interpreted the clothing depicted in this portrait, particularly Crofts' doublet which is worn unbuttoned in back, as an allusion to the subjects' grief-stricken distraction. It is true that Killigrew's dress includes references to his loss—he wears a cross inscribed with his wife's initials. There is an intimate nature to this painting, which seems underscored by the loose clothing worn by both subjects. However, diis reading of the costumes as signs of grief does not take account of seventeenth-century fashion conventions. Only Killigrew appears in noticeably disheveled attire;
Crofts" dress would be quite appropriate for a formal portrait. Though black clothing, such as that won by Crofil, was common for mourning, it was also ordinary on other occasions. Furthermore, during the first stage of mounting no shiny surfaces, such as Crofts' satin doublet, would be permitted. The unbuttoned slit on Crofts" doublet was probably a matter of style: a French courtier in a 1635 fashion print by Bosse. who is gallivanting rather than grieving, wears a similarly undone doublet. Evidence suggests that by the late 1630s a certain calculated looseness was conventional in men's formal dress. Ribeiro. for example, cites the writings of moralists objecting to this style.
Killigrew's attire, though even looser than Crofts", should not necessarily be associated with grief. Other seventeenth-century subjects depicted in melancholic states do not dress this way. Although Killigrew's "undress" lends this portrait a distinctive intimacy, it might also refer to Killigrew's literary career. Many of Van Dyck's other subjects who engaged in literary pursuits are depicted in loose clothing. The blank sheet held by Crofts may be a reminder not only of Killigrew's loss but also of his solace: he had but to express his grief in writing.
The author of the passage suggests that if the cited "art historians" had taken account of seventeenth-century fashion, they would have been more likely to
Discussions of the collapse of the lowland Maya are not new. However, it might be better to say that Maya civilization as a whole did not collapse, although many zones did experience profound change. Because societies are not bounded, unitary entities. collapses are rarely total, and continuity is a normal pan of collapse At the end of the Classic period [200 900 C.E.]. the institution of divine kingship and many of the well-known markers of elite culture such as carved stelae [slabs erected for funerals or commemorative purposes] and hieroglyphic polychromes [multicolored artistic pottery) ended, but Maya civilization continued in modified form with many important features intact (e.g.. literacy, war. art. the production of fine ceramics). In some cases large buildings were constructed in the Postclassic period [900-1512 C.E.], but the transition to the Early Postclassic [900-1200 CXj era is distinctive for a decrease in elite goods and contexts. The variability in artifact changes during the Terminal Classic [800-900 C.E.] and into the Postclassic. even within artifact classes (e.g.. fine versus unslipped ceramics), suggests weaker centralized control than during the Classic period. Site abandonments in the Terminal Classic indicate the collapse of the functional ability of Maya states, but sites that survived show that Maya civilization continued albeit without divine kingship and much of the spectacle around it.
The passage suggests which of the following about Maya living after the Terminal Classic in "sites that survived"?
The highly dispersed nature of Panzaleo pottery throughout present-day Ecuador has led archaeologists to speculate about the pottery's origins and significance. Jijon y Caamano attributed the pottery's distribution to trade, and based on the large quantities of pottery recovered in the Ambato-Latacunga region of the central Ecuadorian highlands, he proposed that region as the probable locus of production. However. Porras suggests that inhabitants of the subtropical eastern Andean slopes, or montafta, were the original producers of Panzaleo. Porras: theory involves the forced migration of the montaria population from their homeland in the Quijos River valley into the Ecuadorian highlands. The gradual exodus and ensuing dispersal of the makers of this ware could account for the diffuse distribution of the materials.
The passage cites evidence supporting which of the following hypotheses?
When Flemish painter Anthony Van Dyck moved to England in 1632 to become court painter to Charles The introduced an entirely new way of representing dress in portraiture. In women's portraits. he left off fashionable accessories, depicted subjects in unbuttoned sleeves and collars, and added lavish drapery and jewels. For the first time an artist actively participated in dressing his subjects, creating an amalgam of fantasy and reality. While Van Dyck was most innovative when representing women, he used similar elements in portraits of men.
Van Dyck's Portrait of Thomas Killigrew and Willian. Lord Crofts (1638) demonstrates how the artist relaxed and unbuttoned men's dress to accord with an underlying theme. The double portrait may be seen as an essay in grief: Killigrew. a poet and playwright, had lost his wife Cecelia to the plague shortly before the sitting, and Crofts was her nephew. The painting contains clear references to the situation at hand. The background features a broken column, a traditional emblem of earthly transience. A drawing in Killigrew's right hand depicts two Itinerary monuments. Crofts holds a blank sheet of paper, seen by some scholars as an analog to the drawing Killigrew holds: a symbol of what is gone.
At historians have interpreted the clothing depicted in this portrait, particularly Crofts' doublet which is worn unbuttoned in back, as an allusion to the subjects' grief-stricken distraction. It is true that Killigrew's dress includes references to his loss—he wears a cross inscribed with his wife's initials. There is an intimate nature to this painting, which seems underscored by the loose clothing worn by both subjects. However, diis reading of the costumes as signs of grief does not take account of seventeenth-century fashion conventions. Only Killigrew appears in noticeably disheveled attire;
Crofts" dress would be quite appropriate for a formal portrait. Though black clothing, such as that won by Crofil, was common for mourning, it was also ordinary on other occasions. Furthermore, during the first stage of mounting no shiny surfaces, such as Crofts' satin doublet, would be permitted. The unbuttoned slit on Crofts" doublet was probably a matter of style: a French courtier in a 1635 fashion print by Bosse. who is gallivanting rather than grieving, wears a similarly undone doublet. Evidence suggests that by the late 1630s a certain calculated looseness was conventional in men's formal dress. Ribeiro. for example, cites the writings of moralists objecting to this style.
Killigrew's attire, though even looser than Crofts", should not necessarily be associated with grief. Other seventeenth-century subjects depicted in melancholic states do not dress this way. Although Killigrew's "undress" lends this portrait a distinctive intimacy, it might also refer to Killigrew's literary career. Many of Van Dyck's other subjects who engaged in literary pursuits are depicted in loose clothing. The blank sheet held by Crofts may be a reminder not only of Killigrew's loss but also of his solace: he had but to express his grief in writing.
The author's reference to the "cross" worn by Killigrew serves primarily as
Scientists have recently confirmed that Mercury possesses a lot of ice._________discovery for a place that ranks among the hottest in the solar system.
The public has not reacted favorably to the majority of the policies adopted by the present government. If. however, the electoral landslide by which the government achieved power five years ago was. as is often claimed, a mandate for more conservative policies, then the public response to most of the government's policies would have been favorable.
If the statements in the passage are true, which of the following must also be true on the basis of them?
Because ii has usually been impossible to_________exotic species once they have become established, it is prudent to minimize the introduction of such species that have a substantial probability of unwanted impacts.
Economists use two competing models to describe the effects of commercial advertising—advertising as market competition and advertising as market power. The market competition model holds that the fundamental function of advertising is to provide information about products and brands. It is argued that information in ads permits greater marketplace efficiencies, such as lower prices and reduced monopoly power. In a similar vein, much discussion regarding political advertising has rested on its informational value Does political advertising provide political information and help voters make informed decisions'1 Nelson argues that promoting bars of soap in commercial ads is no different than promoting political ideas ideology from political candidates in political ads. on the grounds that information is being distributed m both cases. Others, such as Ferguson and Jamieson, disagree with Nelson's proposition Ferguson, for example, pointed out that choosing a political candidate is more like buying an experience good (where the quality is hard to evaluate prior to purchase) rather than a search good (where the quality is easily evaluated before the purchase). According to Ferguson, claims in political ads do not have true informational value, because it is difficult for voters to draw inferences about the future deeds of a candidate from what the ads say Furthermore. Jamieson argues that political ads reshape the public image of political candidates and change voters' feelings about the candidates with subtle emotional cues but without substantive information upon which to base a reasoned judgment.
The passage implies that Ferguson and Jamieson agree that political advertising
Economists use two competing models to describe the effects of commercial advertising—advertising as market competition and advertising as market power. The market competition model holds that the fundamental function of advertising is lo provide information about products and brands. It is argued that information in ads permits greater marketplace efficiencies, such as lower prices and reduced monopoly power. In a similar vein, much discussion regarding political advertising has rested on its informational value. Does political advertising provide political information and help voters make informed decisions'1 Nelson argues that promoting bars of soap in commercial ads is no different than promoting political ideas ideology from political candidates in political ads. on the grounds that information is being distributed m both cases. Others, such as Ferguson and Jamieson, disagree with Nelson's proposition. Ferguson, for example, pointed out that choosing a political candidate is more like buying an experience good (where the quality is hard to evaluate prior to purchase) rather than a search good (where the quality is easily evaluated before the purchase). According to Ferguson, claims in political ads do not have true informational value, because it is difficult for voters to draw inferences about the future deeds of a candidate from what the ads say Furthermore. Jamieson argues that political ads reshape the public image of political candidates and change voters feelings about the candidates with subtle emotional cues but without substantive information upon which to base a reasoned judgment.
In the context of the passage as a whole, the highlighted sentence serves primarily to
Even if the merits of the proposal are (i)_________, faculty members may be reluctant to (ii)_________given their fear of offending the group that champions it.
Until 1992. microprocessor types were identified by number, and for a long time they were considered so _________that manufacturers would share design specifications for them.
Origin, distribution, and habitat are included in the book for some but not all of the plants: offering this information for each species would have given readers a clearer appreciation of the differences between _________and introduced species.
Researchers concluded thai although the success of pearl millet crops in the region varied with seasonal
climatic conditions, cultivation remains_________because of pearl millet's predisposition to perform under
stressful growing conditions, including drought.
Mary Beard notes that the classical past has never been________ by only one political tendency or party: the classics have been used in support of revolutions as well as dictatorships.
The snow-covered surface of the lake presents a reassuring illusion of________. but beneath the snow the ice is riven with treacherous cracks.
What accounts for the low-lying. Hat surface of Mars's north? On Earth's surface, higher- and lower-lying areas have different types of crust: one. thin and dense, is pulled toward Earth's center more strongly by gravity, and the planet's water naturally comes to sit over it. creating oceans. The processes that generate this oceanic crust drive plate tectonics.
Is Mars's north similarly characterized by a sort of crust different from other areas of the planet? Some researchers do see signs of tectonic activity surrounding the northern basin that suggest that it was created through the formation of new crust, like ocean basins on Earth. However. McGill points to northern bedrock structures that predate the features said to mark the start of the tectonic process. McGill instead believes that through some novel mechanism the ancient surface sank to its current depth as a single unit. This would explain why features around the basin's edge. which would have formed as the surface dropped, seem to be younger than structures at its floor.
The third possibility is that the northern lowlands result from impacts. Some researchers suggest they formed as a series of big overlapping impact craters. Others, arguing that the odds against such a pattern of impacts are large, postulate a single event—the impact of an object bigger than any asteroid the solar system now contains.
As presented in the passage. McGill's account of the formation of Mars's northern basin differs from the others mentioned in that it alone
According 10 the classical idea of space-time reality, two particles, identical or not, can be distinguished by tracing the motion of the particles along their trajectories. This idea is (1)________that the particles can be observed continuously, a belief that is (ii)________with respect to macroscopic bodies, but not with respect to free atoms. which (iii)________constant observation.
Writing for the New York Times in 1971. Saul Braun claimed that - todays superhero is about as much like his predecessors as today's child is like his parents." In an unprecedented article on the state of American comics, "Shazam! Here Comes Captain Relevant. Braun wove a story of an industry whose former glory producing jingoistic fantasies of superhuman power in the 1930s and 1940s had given way to a canny interest in revealing the power structures against which ordinary people and heroes alike struggled following World War II Quoting a description of a course on •Comparative Comics" at Brown University, he wrote, 'New heroes are different—they ponder moral questions, have emotional differences, and are just as neurotic as real people. Captain America openly sympathizes with campus radicals.. Lois Lane apes John Howard Griffin and turns herself black to study racism, and everybody battles to save the environment."" Five years earlier. Esquire had presaged Braun s claims about comic books: generational appeal, dedicating a spread to the popularity of superhero comics among university students in their special 'College Issue." As one student explained. "My favorite is the Hulk. I identify with him, he's the outcast against the institution.'1 Only months after the NW York Times article saw print. Rolling Stone published a six-page expose on the inner workings of Marvel Comics, while Ms. Magazine emblazoned Wonder Woman on the cover of its premier issue—declaring s Wonder Woman for President'"" no less—and devoted an article to the origins of the latter-day feminist superhero.
Where little more than a decade before comics had signaled the moral and aesthetic degradation of American culture, by 1971 they had come of age as America's "native art::: taught on Ivy League campuses, studied by European scholars and filmmakers, and translated and sold around the world, they were now taken up as a new generation's critique of American society. The concatenation of these sentiments among such diverse publications revealed that the growing popularity and public interest in comics (and comic-book superheroes) spanned a wide demographic spectrum, appealing to middle-class urbamtes, college-age men. members of the counterculture, and feminists alike. At the heart of this newfound admiration for comics lay a glaring yet largely unremarked contradiction: the cultural regeneration of the comic-book medium was made possible by the revamping of a key American fantasy figure, the superhero, even as that figure was being lauded for its realism"" and social relevance."" As the title of Braun's article suggests, in the early 1970s, "relevance" became a popular buzzword denoting a shift in comic-book content from oblique narrative metaphors for social problems toward direct representations of racism and sexism, urban blight, and political corruption.
It can be inferred that the author of the passage regards the concatenation" of sentiments surrounding comics as evidence of
Birds that prey on sage grouse generally hunt by circling over sagebrush and pouncing on sage grouse that come out into the open. Where there are power lines, however, these predators often survey the ground while sitting on the power lines. Although the area they can survey is smaller, predators sitting on power lines are more likely to catch sage grouse than are predators circling in the air. because_________,
The primary purpose of the passage is to
Scholars generally estimate subscribers to Freedom z Journal (1827-1829), the United States" first African American newspaper, at around 800. based on subscriptions to The Rights of AIL an African American newspaper founded in 1829 as a successor to Freedom s Journal by a former editor of that newspaper But Gross argues that many more than 800 readers probably subscribed to Freedom X Journal because many of its subscribers, dissatisfied with the direction ultimately taken by the paper, refused to subscribe to The Rights of All. In any case, the figure of 800 subscribers would make the circulation of Freedom s Journal close to that of other weekly papers of the time Its number of readers, however, would have been much larger: copies were often shared. and African American organizations subscribed to Freedom s Journal, providing nonsubscribers access to the paper
Which of the following, if true, would most lend to undermine Gross's argument mentioned in the highlighted portion of the passage?
Sensationalism—the purveyance of emotionally charged content. focused mainly on violent crime, to a broad public—has often been decried, but the full history of the phenomenon has yet to be written. Scholars have tended to dismiss sensationalism as unworthy of serious study, based on two pervasive though somewhat incompatible assumptions: first, that sensationalism is essentially a commercial product, built on the exploitation of modern mass media, and second, that it appeals almost entirely to a simple, basic emotion and thus has tittle history apart from the changing technological means of spreading it. An exploration of sensationalism's early history, however, challenges both assumptions and suggests that they have tended to obscure the complexity and historicity of the genre.
According to the passage, scholars have not given sensationalism serious consideration because they believe sensationalism
Like paleontologists who interpret timescales from fossil evidence, we infer the history of star formation in the Milks' Way galaxy from the heavy-element composition of its stars. According to the big bang theory of the origin of the universe, the first gas clouds—and the first generation of stars formed from them—were composed of pure hydrogen and helium; most heavier elements— iron and calcium, for example—came later, created by explosions of supernovas, massive stars in their death thaws. Loaded with heavy elements, material ejected from supernovas enriched the interstellar gas clouds from which the next generation of stars formed, the level of heavy elements increasing with succeeding generations. Because most stars live for many billions of years and because the Milky Way is thus composed of multiple stellar generations, comparing the number of stars of low heavy-element abundance with those of high heavy-element abundance enables astronomers to untangle the history of star formation in the Milky Way.
Replacement of the word "enriched" with which of the following words results in the least change in meaning for the passage?
Adapting to its changing environment and building its own ecological niche in interactions with other disciplines, the scientific discipline of ecology can be seen as highly_________.
Some archaeologists speculate that the Americas might have been initially colonized between 40.000 and 25.000 years ago. However, to support this theory it is necessary to explain the absence of generally accepted habitation sites for that time interval in what is now the United States. Australia, which has a smaller land area than the United States, has many such sites, supporting the generally accepted claim that the continent was colonized by humans at least 40.000 years ago. Australia is less densely populated (resulting in lower chances of discovering sites) and with its overall greater aridity would have presented conditions less favorable for hunter-gatherer occupation. Proportionally, at least as much land area has been lost from the coastal regions of Australia because of postglacial sea-level rise as in the United States, so any coastal archaeological record in Australia should have been depleted about as much as a coastal record in the United States. Since there are so many resource-rich rivers leading inland from the United States coastline, it seems implausible that a growing population of humans would have confined itself to coasts for thousands of years. If inhabitants were present 25.000 years ago. the chances of their appearing in the archaeological record would seem to be greater than for Australia.
The passage is primarily concerned with doing winch of the following?
In contrast to today, when many readers consider the moral sentiments expressed in the ancient writer’s work to be quite sophomoric. in the writer'! own tune these sentiments were regarded as remarkably________.
A divide between aesthetic and technical considerations has played a crucial role in mapmaking and cartographic scholarship. Some nineteenth-century cartographers, for instance, understood themselves as technicians who did not care about visual effects, while others saw themselves as landscape painters. That dichotomy structured the discipline of the history of cartography. Until the 1980s, in what Blakemore and Harley called "the 'Old is Beautiful' paradigm.* scholars largely focused on maps made before 1800. marveling at their beauty and sometimes regretting the decline of the pre-technical age. Early mapmaking was considered art while modem cartography was located within the realm of engineering utility. Alpers. however, has argued that this boundary would have puzzled mapmakers in the seventeenth century, because they considered themselves to be visual engineers.
According to the passage. Alpers would say that the assumptions underlying the "paradigm" were
Carbon dating of charcoal gathered from a Nok iron smelter at Intime. Nigeria, suggests that iron technology was established there by 410 B.C. This may not be the oldest smelter in sub-Saharan Africa, however. Archaeologists have located evidence of iron-smelting in the Termite Hills of Niger from as early as 1400 B.C.. but skeptics say the wood used for that dating could have already been centuries old when burned as fuel—a problem that dogs carbon dating, especially in arid places like Niger, where wood desiccates and lasts longer. Of course, the same problem could distort dates for the Intime furnace as well, but here there is an important piece of corroborating evidence: Nok pottery found inside the furnace alongside the charcoal.
The author implies which of the following about the "Nok pottery found inside the furnace"?
Recent research has questioned the long-standing view of pearly mussels as exclusively suspension feeders (animals that strain suspended particles from water) that subsist on phytoplankton (mostly algae). Early studies of mussel feeding were based on analyses of gut contents, a method that has three weaknesses. First, material in mucus-bound gut contents is difficult to identify and quantify. Second, material found in the gut may pass undigested out of the mussel, not contributing to its nutrition. Finally, examination of gut contents offers limited insight into the mechanisms and behaviors by which mussels acquire food. Modem studies suggest that pearly mussels feed on more than just algae and may use other means than suspension feeding. Pedal feeding (sweeping up edible material with a muscular structure called the foot) has been observed in juvenile pearly mussels.
Besides the phytoplankton pearly mussels capture from the water column, their guts also contain small animals, protozoans, and detritus (nonliving particulate organic material). Recent studies show that mussels can capture and assimilate bacteria as well, a potentially important source of food in many fresh waters. Another potential source of food for mussels is dissolved organic matter. Early studies showing that pearly mussels could take up simple organic compounds were largely discounted because such labile (unstable) compounds are rarely abundant in nature. Nevertheless, recent work on other bivalves suggests that dissolved organic matter may be a significant source of nutrition.
Of this complex mix of materials that pearly mussels acquire, what is actually required and assimilated? Stable-isotope analyses of mussels taken from nature and of captive-reared mussels are beginning to offer some insight into this question. Nichols and Garling showed that pearly mussels in a small river were omnivorous, subsisting mainly on particles less than 2S micrometers in diameter, including algae, detritus, and bacteria. Bacterially derived carbon was apparently the primary source of soft-tissue carbon. However, bacteria alone cannot support mussel growth, because they lack the necessary long-chain fatty acids and sterols and are deficient in some amino acids. Bacteria may supplement other food resources, provide growth factors, or be the primary food In habitats such as headwater streams, where phytoplankton is scarce. Juvenile mussels have been most successfully reared m the laboratory on diets containing algae high in polyunsaturated fatty acids. Thus, it appears that the pearly mussel diet in nature may consist of algae, bacteria, detritus, and small animals and that at least some algae and bacteria may be required as a source of essential biochemicals.
The primary purpose of the passage is to
There is a long-standing historical presumption that social custom during the early years of the United States forbade women from public speaking. In fact, though, the standard mode of education of the 1790s and early 1800s. which emphasized oral recitation and performance, taught girls that educated and well-spoken women had an important role to play in American society. By depicting skilled speech as a necessary talent for women in a civilized society, elocutionary education encouraged a certain degree of female ambition and even political involvement. Transmitted via standard, inexpensive schoolbooks. this message reached virtually all who read schoolbooks or attended schools. This environment did not last long, however: even by the 1S10s. attitudes about women's education had changed considerably.
The author would probably agree with which of the following statements about the "historical presumption"?
Cole makes the argument that while some advocates of government transparency seem to treat any exposure of state secrets as an (i)_________. that position is (ii)_________; there are many legitimate bases for (hi)_________ disclosures. Cole contends, particularly when they reveal the identities of sources and methods of foreign intelligence.
The notion that scientists consider the work they do to be (i)_________contradicts popular stereotypes that depict the work of scientists (and the scientists themselves) as being formal and rigid, following lockstep procedures in which the (ii)_________elements of researchers' personalities fail to enter their labors.
Typefaces, in one sense, are just like styles of shoes: they________ because different people have different tastes and identities and because both creators and users value novelty for its own sake.
In Cleopatra: A Life. Schitf_________Cleopatra, stripping away the accretions of myth built up around the
Egyptian queen and plucking off the imaginative embroiderings of Shakespeare and Shaw.
Like paleontologists who interpret timescales from fossil evidence, we infer the history of star formation in the Milks' Way galaxy from the heavy-element composition of its stars. According to the big bang theory of the origin of the universe, the first gas clouds—and the first generation of stars formed from them—were composed of pure hydrogen and helium; most heavier elements— iron and calcium, for example—came later, created by explosions of supernovas, massive stars in their death thaws. Loaded with heavy elements, material ejected from supernovas enriched the interstellar gas clouds from which the next generation of stars formed, the level of heavy elements increasing with succeeding generations. Because most stars live for many billions of years and because the Milky Way is thus composed of multiple stellar generations, comparing the number of stars of low heavy-element abundance with those of high heavy-element abundance enables astronomers to untangle the history of star formation in the Milky Way.
The passage implies that if a star contains calcium, then the
TESTED 23 Nov 2024
