30. The correct answer is (C). Since either statement considered alone involves a linear equation in two variables, neither statement alone suffices to answer the question. Consider the two statements together. Notice that, in each equation, the right side is the same: the number 3. Thus, 5x 2 4y 5 4y 2 5x. This equation is equivalent to x 5 4 5 y. Given that x . 0, x must be less than y, and the answer to the question must be no. 31. The correct answer is (A). To simplify the problem, write each numerator term over the common denominator, then cancel common factors: x 4 2 y 5 x 4 y 5 5 x 4 x 4 y 5 2 y 5 x 4 y 5 5 1 y 5 2 1 x 4 Then, substitute the values for x and y provided in the question, and combine fractions: 1 ~22! 5 2 1 2 4 5 1 232 2 1 16 52 1 32 2 2 32 52 3 32 32. The correct answer is (B). Statement (1) provides a factorable quadratic equation with two different roots: (x 2 1)(x 2 3) 5 0; x 5 1, 3. Since there are two roots (possible values of x), statement (1) alone is insufficient to answer the question. Statement (2) also provides a factorable quadratic equation, but the two roots are the same: (x 2 1)(x 2 1) 5 0; x 5 1. Since the only possible value of x is 1, statement (2) alone suffices to answer the question. 33. The correct answer is (C). Statement (1) alone is insufficient because it provides no information about CD. Statement (2) alone is insufficient because it provides no information about AB. Together, however, statements (1) and (2) suffice to answer the question. Given statement (1), you can determine the circle’s circumference, which is twice the length of two arcs created by a diameter chord. From the circumference you can determine the circle’s diameter and compare it to the length of CD, which statement (2) indicates is 5. (Although you don’t need to do the calculations or actually answer the question, the circle’s circumference is twice the length of arc ACB,or10p, and its diameter is 10. Given that the length of CD 5 5, the length of AB . the length of CD, and the answer to the question is yes.) 34. The correct answer is (E). Since x equals the rate (speed) of the freight train, you can express the rate of the passenger train as x 1 45. Substitute these values for time and rate into the formula for each train: Formula: rate 3 time 5 distance Passenger: ~x 1 45!~3!53 x 1 135 Freight: ~x!~3!53x The combined distance that the two trains covered is 3x 1 (3x 1 135) 5 6x 1 135. 35. The correct answer is (D). Statement (1) focuses on the weighted-average concept. Given a sum as well as the relative weight of all members in the set (all five grocery items), you can determine each member (the price of each item). Statement (1) provides all the information you need. Statement (2) alone suffices to answer the question: $6.05 2 (4)($1.10) 5 the price of the most expensive item. (For the record, given either statement alone, the price of the most expensive item is $1.65.) answers practice test 5 Practice Test 5 593 www.petersons.com 36. The correct answer is (A). The edge S s 1 3 2 D only accommodates (s 1 1) 1-inch cubes along its edge. The additional half-inch is unused space. Thus, the number of 1-inch cubes that can be packed into the box is the product of the three edges: (s)(s 11)(s 21) 5 s(s 2 2 1) 5 s 3 2 s. 37. The correct answer is (D). Regardless of the number of marbles in the bag, the red-blue-green marble ratio is 4:2:1. As you can see, blue marbles account for 2 7 of the total number of marbles. Thus, the probability of picking a blue marble is 2 7 . Verbal Section 1. A 2. E 3. C 4. C 5. E 6. C 7. A 8. D 9. B 10. B 11. E 12. C 13. C 14. A 15. C 16. D 17. A 18. B 19. E 20. E 21. D 22. B 23. D 24. B 25. A 26. C 27. A 28. E 29. D 30. B 31. A 32. B 33. D 34. A 35. A 36. B 37. E 38. D 39. E 40. D 41. D 1. The correct answer is (A). The original version is correct. The subject is compound and therefore takes the plural verb form require, not the singular form requires—as choices (B), (C), and (E) provide. Choice (D) undermines the grammatical parallelism between the underlined phrase and the sentence’s final clause. 2. The correct answer is (E). The original version is not a complete sentence. Choice (E) corrects the problem by replacing but with is. Choice (B) also fixes the problem, but its use of the subjunctive mood (would instead) makes no sense in context. 3. The correct answer is (C). The argument fails to explicitly provide that employees who are at least ten years out of college change employers less frequently on average than other employees. This premise is essential to the argument’s conclusion, and choice (C) supplies this additional premise. 4. The correct answer is (C). The original sentence makes an illogical comparison between speech and region. Choice (C) corrects the problem by adding that of, without creating any new problems. 5. The correct answer is (E). The argument relies on the unstated assumption that no factor other than Gary’s driving speed might be responsible for the recent decrease in his fuel mileage; in other words, no other circumstances that might affect fuel mileage have changed recently. One effective way to weaken the argument would be to refute this assumption. Choice (E) accomplishes this by providing a convincing alternative explanation for the decrease. 594 PART VI: Five Practice Tests www.petersons.com 6. The correct answer is (C). Of the five choices, choice (C) is the best because it substantiates an assumption needed for the argument’s conclusion to be reasonable. Unless the winning candidate actually wages an expensive television ad campaign, it makes no sense to conclude that this type of campaign contributed to the candidate’s victory. 7. The correct answer is (A). The passage indicates that prior to the discovery of extremophiles the thermal threshold was set at 60 degrees centigrade “because it was thought that the molecular integrity of vital cellular components could not be maintained beyond such temperatures.” It can be inferred that if extremophiles can live and thrive past 60 degrees centigrade, they can maintain molecular integrity past the previous thermal threshold. Hence, choice (A) is the correct answer. (The passage does not mention extremophiles existing in moderate environments, so choice (B) cannot be inferred from the passage.) 8. The correct answer is (D). Based on the context, it is clear that the author considers thermal threshold to mean “the temperature at which biological organisms begin to break down due to heat.” Choice (D) best expresses this meaning. 9. The correct answer is (B). In the first sentence, the author describes the modification made to an existing system for classifying biological life forms. Then, in the rest of the passage, the author provides the reason for the modification. 10. The correct answer is (B). The original sentence suffers from faulty parallelism. Removing the second phrase of the comparison (set off by commas) reveals the omission of as (is as crucial as). Choice (B) completes the form of the idiomatic phrase by including the word as. 11. The correct answer is (E). The original version is redundant in its use of job twice. Also, at times is not idiomatic here. (Either sometimes or occasionally would have been correct.) Choice (E) corrects both problems. So does choice (D), but using the word some twice sounds clumsy and alters the sentence’s meaning—by going too far in limiting the situations in which a demonstration is requested. 12. The correct answer is (C). In the original sentence, the two-word phrase some times is improper in context and should be replaced with a word such as occasionally or sometimes. Also, the original sentence employs the passive voice—the subject (airplanes departing) is acted upon by (prevented by) its object (severe weather). The result is awkward and confusing. Choice (C) corrects both problems, replacing some times with sometimes and using the active voice instead. 13. The correct answer is (C). The passage’s first two sentences point out that large pharmaceutical companies are motivated primarily by profit, even to the extent that they trade off millions of cholera- and malaria-related deaths every year to ensure their own profitability. In light of these premises, the next premise (the passage’s final sentence) leads strongly to the conclusion that these companies are willing to make a similar trade-off when it comes to saving victims of germ warfare. answers practice test 5 Practice Test 5 595 www.petersons.com 14. The correct answer is (A). The argument depends on the assumption that a great white shark would not survive at Bayside Aquarium long enough to have any significant impact on public awareness. Choice (A) provides evidence that helps refute this assumption. (Common sense tells us that a captive animal is more likely to survive in an environment similar to its natural habitat than in a different environment.) 15. The correct answer is (C). The sentence to which this question refers parallels the preceding sentence, in which the author indicates the Encyclopedists’ concern for both the theoretical and the practical. The author appears to provide one example of each—the subject of the human soul is theoretical while the subject of stocking production is practical. 16. The correct answer is (D). Notice that in the preceding sentence the author uses the phrase “dared to publicly assert the intellectual freedom ”Thisphrase suggests a challenge to political authority. Although the inference in choice (D) is not self-evident, choice (D) is nevertheless a more reasonable explanation than any of the other four choices for the author’s use of the word “understandably.” 17. The correct answer is (A). Although the French government refused to license its printing, the work was nevertheless printed and sold extensively throughout Europe. The clear implication is that its printing (as well as distribution) was illegal. 18. The correct answer is (B). The passage posits the following simple argument: If both of two conditions (exposure to the nuclear testing at an age less than 10 years) are true, then a particular result (death before age 50) is certain. Given that this argument is true, any person alive today who resided in the town during the testing (and therefore was exposed to the resulting radiation) must have been at least 10 years old at the time. Here’s the essence of the reasoning: Premise: If both A and B, then C. Premise: Not C. Conclusion: Not both A and B. 19. The correct answer is (E). The argument asserts essentially that it was the marketing campaign, and not some other factor, that was responsible for the high number of sales of the new version of ActiveWeb compared to competing products. One way to support the argument is to rule out one or more other factors that might have been responsible for this phenomenon instead. By implication, choice (E) provides just this sort of evidence. While favorable third-party reviews of ActiveWeb would serve to weaken the claim that the marketing campaign was the cause of the sales results, unfavorable reviews would accomplish just the opposite. 20. The correct answer is (E). One problem with the original sentence is that it makes an illogical comparison, suggesting that a pluralistic democracy is not a system of government, when in fact it is. The solution is to add other to the end of the underlined phrase. A second problem with the original sentence is that in greater degree is not idiomatic; to a greater degree would be the appropriate idiom here. Choice (E) corrects the first error and avoids the second one by replacing in greater degree with the concise more. 596 PART VI: Five Practice Tests www.petersons.com 21. The correct answer is (D). The words examination, diagnosing, and treatment are not all grammatically parallel. One solution is to replace diagnosing with diagnosis. Also, the first clause seems to refer nonsensically to patients because of this word’s proximity to the clause. The solution is to reconstruct the sentence so that the clause is closer to physicians than to patients. Choice (D) is the only alternative that corrects both problems without creating any new ones. 22. The correct answer is (B). The argument assumes that the proposed course of action—reducing demand for aoli tree bark—is necessary to prevent total depletion of aoli tree bark within fifty years. However, the argument ignores the possibility of increasing supply as an alternative means of achieving this goal. Choice (B) provides this alternative. 23. The correct answer is (D). Based on the last sentence of the passage, we can conclude that juvenile criminals associate primarily with other juvenile criminals, and that adult criminals constitute the same group of people who were juvenile criminals. For choice (D) to not be readily inferable would require that most adult criminals associate primarily with law-abiding peers as teenagers. But this contradicts what we know about adult criminals, based on the passage information. Thus, choice (D) is strongly inferable. 24. The correct answer is (B). In the original version, both limit of the number and limit oftheboundaries improperly use of. (In both cases, limit on is idiomatic.) Also, the plural numbers should be replaced with number. Choice (B) corrects both problems. 25. The correct answer is (A). The original version is the best one. Choice (B) is wordy and awkward; choice (C) alters the sentence’s meaning by suggesting not using waterfront land at all; choice (D) is awkward; and choice (E) contains utilizations, which is not a word. 26. The correct answer is (C). The passage’s author indicates that Elvery was influenced by fifteenth-century Italian art, but the author neither states nor suggests that Elvery was influenced by her French contemporaries. Choice (D) is not explicitly supported in the passage. However, in the third paragraph the author indicates that Keating was a student of Orpen. The fact that Orpen participated in the French avant-garde experiment as a teacher lends strong support to the assertion that Keating was also influenced by the avant-garde movement. 27. The correct answer is (A). Although the passage does not indicate the subject matter of the paintings of realists Henry and Keating, the author discusses Lavery and Orpen as depicting in their paintings somewhat romanticized scenes of politically charged subject matter. Yeats’ focus on everyday Irish life is set against, yet complements, (i.e., provides a “counterpoint to”) the depictions by Lavery and Orpen. 28. The correct answer is (E). The passage’s main concern, expressed in the first sentence, is with the transition in Ireland from art that was influenced primarily by Britain’s lyrical tradition to art that reflected Ireland’s distinct national character. Of the five answer choices, choice (E) is most consistent with this overall concern. answers practice test 5 Practice Test 5 597 www.petersons.com 29. The correct answer is (D). As a whole, the passage involves the increasing role that Irish tradition and nationalism played in the subject matter of Irish painting, beginning at the turn of the twentieth century. The first sentence strongly suggests that the article would continue in this vein. 30. The correct answer is (B). Assuming the number of viable competitors has increased during the last two years, the likely result would be to draw circulation away from already viable newspapers, including the most profitable one. Given that profitability depends primarily on advertising revenues and therefore on circulation, choice (B) actually exacerbates the discrepancy between the two statements. 31. The correct answer is (A). The argument is essentially that the proposed law makes no sense because knitting needles are dangerous as well. The argument relies explicitly on an analogy between hypodermic and knitting needles. Thus, the two must be similar in all respects relevant to the argument. Otherwise, the argument is unconvincing. Choice (A) affirms that knitting needles are in fact dangerous, thereby affirming the analogy between the two types of needles. 32. The correct answer is (B). The underlined part leaves it unclear whether the Milky Way is the name of our galaxy or the name for the center of our galaxy. Choice (B) reconstructs the underlined part to clear up the ambiguity. 33. The correct answer is (D). In the original version, the shift in time frame from past (were) to present (have expected) is confusing and illogical. Also, the syntax obscures the intended meaning; specifically, one could interpret neither result of the two experiments to mean that each of the two experiments had two results; but this is clearly not the intended meaning. Finally, the plural verb were does not agree in number with its singular subject neither result. Choice (D) remedies all of these problems. 34. The correct answer is (A). The subjunctive mood is appropriate for this sentence since it ostensibly involves a contrary-to-fact situation. Either of two phrases—If empty space were or Were empty space—would be perfectly acceptable here. Choice (A) employs the latter phrase. Choices (B) and (C) incorrectly use the present tense is, which is inappropriate for expressing the subjunctive mood. Choice (B) is also wordy. Choice (D) is not idiomatic. (That should be replaced with If.) Choice (E) incorrectly uses the past tense was. 35. The correct answer is (A). Unless the primary motivation for joining a gym is a concern for health and fitness, the fact that club memberships are in decline is insufficient to show that people are becoming less concerned about their health and fitness. The argument fails to rule out other possibilities as the major reasons people use health clubs—for example, to socialize—as well as other possible reasons people might discontinue using health clubs—for example, because membership fees have become less affordable. 36. The correct answer is (B). The high-altitude plateaus are called altiplano (lines 16–17). The passage states explicitly that the soil fertility in the northern altiplano is generally good (lines 18–20). 598 PART VI: Five Practice Tests www.petersons.com 37. The correct answer is (E). The passage provides explicitly that, unlike the Northern Andes, the eastern slopes of the Central Andes have a dry season (lines 24–29). 38. The correct answer is (D). This question focuses on the information in the second paragraph. The author first notes that vegetation patterns correspond generally with climate (as determined primarily by latitude and altitude). Accordingly, altitude and latitude affect vegetation patterns throughout the region. Then, in the final sentence the author points out that, in spite of the general correspondence between climate and vegetation, local patterns may not correspond so precisely with climate, due to a number of local factors. Choice (D) accurately reflects the information in the second paragraph. 39. The correct answer is (E). The only evidence the spokesperson has provided that the coasters still in operation are safe is that no fatalities occurred last year involving any one of these coasters. To better assess their safety, it would be helpful to determine the incidence of not just fatal accidents but also non-fatal accidents involving these coasters. Although the investigations described in choices (B), (C), and (D) might shed some additional light on the safety of these coasters, the investigation described in choice (E) relates most directly to the specific coasters that the spokesperson claims to be safe. 40. The correct answer is (D). The original version misplaces the modifying phrase when its people obey and revere the law. As it stands, the pronoun its appears to refer to Lincoln; but the intended reference is to democracy. Choice (D) clarifies the pronoun reference by positioning its after its antecedent democracy. 41. The correct answer is (D). SubStop complied with the state’s cost-of-living raise requirements. (The question stem stipulates that all information in the passage is true.) Therefore, the only explanation for giving either type of raise (discretionary or cost-of-living) to 2 employees last year is that they had worked for SubStop continuously for six months. answers practice test 5 Practice Test 5 599 www.petersons.com ANSWER SHEET PRACTICE TEST 6 ANALYTICAL WRITING ASSESSMENT Analysis of an Issue ✁ answer sheet Practice Test 6 601 www.petersons.com ✁ 602 PART VI: Five Practice Tests www.petersons.com . (B). The underlined part leaves it unclear whether the Milky Way is the name of our galaxy or the name for the center of our galaxy. Choice (B) reconstructs the underlined part to clear up the. occasionally or sometimes. Also, the original sentence employs the passive voice—the subject (airplanes departing) is acted upon by (prevented by) its object (severe weather). The result is awkward and. two conditions (exposure to the nuclear testing at an age less than 10 years) are true, then a particular result (death before age 50) is certain. Given that this argument is true, any person