Question 1- 8

                With Robert Laurent and William Zorach, direct carving enters into the story of
           modem sculpture in the United States. Direct carving – in which the sculptors
           themselves carve stone or wood with mallet and chisel – must be recognized as
line    something more than just a technique. Implicit in it is an aesthetic principle as well:
(5)     that the medium has certain qualities of beauty and expressiveness with which
           sculptors must bring their own aesthetic sensibilities into harmony. For example,
           sometimes the shape or veining in a piece of stone or wood suggests, perhaps even
           dictates, not only the ultimate form, but even the subject matter.

                The technique of direct carving was a break with the nineteenth-century tradition in
(10)    which the making of a clay model was considered the creative act and the work was
           then turned over to studio assistants to be cast in plaster or bronze or carved in marble.
           Neoclassical sculptors seldom held a mallet or chisel in their own hands, readily
           conceding that the assistants they employed were far better than they were at carving
           the finished marble.

(15)         With the turn-of-the-century Crafts movement and the discovery of nontraditional
           sources of inspiration, such as wooden African figures and masks, there arose a new
           urge for hands-on, personal execution of art and an interaction with the medium. Even
           as early as the 1880’s and 1890’s, nonconformist European artists were attempting
           direct carving. By the second decade of the twentieth century, Americans – Laurent
(20)   and Zorach most notably – had adopted it as their primary means of working.

                Born in France, Robert Laurent (1890-197Q) was a prodigy who received his
           education in the United States. In 1905 he was sent to Paris as an apprentice to an art
           dealer, and in the years that followed he witnessed the birth of Cubism, discovered
           primitive art, and learned the techniques of woodcarving from a frame maker.

(25)        Back in New York City by 1910, Laurent began carving pieces such as The
           Priestess, which reveals his fascination with African, pre-Columbian, and South
           Pacific art. Taking a walnut plank, the sculptor carved the expressive, stylized design.
           It is one of the earliest examples of direct carving in American sculpture. The plank’s
           form dictated the rigidly frontal view and the low relief. Even its irregular shape must
           have appealed to Laurent as a break with a long-standing tradition that required a
(30)   sculptor to work within a perfect rectangle or square.

1. The word “medium” in line 5 could be used to refer to

2. What is one of the fundamental principles of direct carving?

3. The word “dictates” in line 8 is closest in meaning to

4. How does direct carving differ from the nineteenth-century tradition of sculpture?

5. The word “witnessed” in line 23 is closest in meaning to

6. Where did Robert Laurent learn to carve?

7. The phrase “a break with” in line 30 is closest in meaning to

8. The piece titled The Priestess has all of the following characteristics
EXCEPT:

Question 9-19

                Birds that feed in flocks commonly retire together into roosts. The reasons for roosting
           communally are not always obvious, but there are some likely benefits. In winter
           especially, it is important for birds to keep warm at night and conserve precious food
line    reserves. One way to do this is to find a sheltered roost. Solitary roosters shelter in
(5)      dense vegetation or enter a cavity – horned larks dig holes in the ground and
           ptarmigan burrow into snow banks – but the effect of sheltering is magnified by
           several birds huddling together in the roosts, as wrens, swifts, brown creepers,
           bluebirds, and anis do. Body contact reduces the surface area exposed to the cold air,
           so the birds keep each other warm. Two kinglets huddling together were found to
(10)    reduce their heat losses by a quarter, and three together saved a third of their heat.

                The second possible benefit of communal roosts is that they act as “information
           centers.” During the day, parties of birds will have spread out to forage over a very
           large area. When they return in the evening some will have fed well, but others may
           have found little to eat. Some investigators have observed that when the birds set out
(15)    again next morning, those birds that did not feed well on the previous day appear to
           follow those that did. The behavior of common and lesser kestrels may illustrate
           different feeding behaviors of similar birds with different roosting habits. The common
           kestrel hunts vertebrate animals in a small, familiar hunting ground, whereas the very
           similar lesser kestrel feeds on insects over a large area. The common kestrel roosts and
(20)   hunts alone, but the lesser kestrel roosts and hunts in flocks, possibly so one bird can
           learn from others where to find insect swarms.

                Finally, there is safety in numbers at communal roosts since there will always be a
           few birds awake at any given moment to give the alarm. But this increased protection is
           partially counteracted by the fact that mass roosts attract predators and are especially
(25)   vulnerable if they are on the ground. Even those in trees can be attacked by birds of
           prey. The birds on the edge are at greatest risk since predators find it easier to catch
           small birds perching at the margins of the roost.

9. What does the passage mainly discuss?
 

10. The word “conserve” in line 3 is closest in meaning to

11. Ptarmigan keep warm in the winter by

12. The word “magnified” in line 6 is closest in meaning to

13. The author mentions kinglets in line 9 as an example of birds that

14. The word “forage” in line 12 is closest in meaning to

15. Which of the following statements about lesser and common kestrels is true?

16. The word “counteracted” in line 24 is closest in meaning to

17. Which of the following is NOT mentioned in the passage as an advantage derived by birds that huddle together while sleeping?

18. Which of the following is a disadvantage of communal roosts that is mentioned in the passage?

19. The word “they” in line 25 refers to

Question 20 – 30

                    Before the mid-nineteenth century, people in the United States ate most foods only
          in season. Drying, smoking, and salting could preserve meat for a short time, but the
          availability of fresh meat, like that of fresh milk, was very limited; there was no way to
          prevent spoilage. But in 1810 a French inventor named Nicolas Appert developed the
(5)    cooking-and-sealing process of canning. And in the 1850’s an American named Gail
          Borden developed a means of condensing and preserving milk. Canned goods and
          condensed milk became more common during the 1860’s, but supplies remained low
          because cans had to be made by hand. By 1880, however, inventors had fashioned
          stamping and soldering machines that mass-produced cans from tinplate. Suddenly all
(10)   kinds of food could be preserved and bought at all times of the year.

                    Other trends and inventions had also helped make it possible for Americans to vary
          their daily diets. Growing urban populations created demand that encouraged fruit and
          vegetable farmers to raise more produce. Railroad refrigerator cars enabled growers
          and meat packers to ship perishables great distances and to preserve them for longer
(15)   periods. Thus, by the 1890’s, northern city dwellers could enjoy southern and western
          strawberries, grapes, and tomatoes, previously available for a month at most, for up to
          six months of the year. In addition, increased use of iceboxes enabled families to store
          perishables. An easy means of producing ice commercially had been invented in the
          1870’s, and by 1900 the nation had more than two thousand commercial ice plants,
(20)  most of which made home deliveries. The icebox became a fixture in most homes and
          remained so until the mechanized refrigerator replaced it in the 1920’s and 1930’s.

                    Almost everyone now had a more diversified diet. Some people continued to eat
          mainly foods that were heavy in starches or carbohydrates, and not everyone could
          afford meat. Nevertheless, many families could take advantage of previously
          unavailable fruits, vegetables, and dairy products to achieve more varied fare.

20. What does the passage mainly discuss?

21. The phrase “in season” in line 2 refers to

22. The word “prevent” in line 4 is closest in meaning to

23. During the 1860’s, canned food products were

24. It can be inferred that railroad refrigerator cars came into use

25. The word “them” in line 14 refers to

26. The word “fixture” in line 20 is closest in meaning to

27. The author implies that in the 1920’s and 1930’s home deliveries of ice

28. The word “nevertheless” in line 24 is closest in meaning to

29. Which of the following types of food preservation was NOT mentioned in the passage?

30. Which of the following statements is supported by the passage?

Question 31 – 40

                    The ability of falling cats to right themselves in midair and land on their feet
          has been a source of wonder for ages. Biologists long regarded it as an example of
          adaptation by natural selection, but for physicists it bordered on the miraculous.
          Newton’s laws of motion assume that the total amount of spin of a body cannot
(5)    change unless an external torque speeds it up or slows it down. If a cat has no spin
          when it is released and experiences no external torque, it ought not to be able lo
          twist around as it falls.
                    In the speed of its execution, the righting of a tumbling cat resembles a
          magician’s trick. The gyrations of the cat in midair are too fast for the human eye to
(10)   follow, so the process is obscured. Either the eye must be speeded up, or the cat’s
          fall slowed down for the phenomenon to be observed. A century ago the former was
          accomplished by means of high-speed photography using equipment now available
          in any pharmacy. But in the nineteenth century the capture on film of a falling cat
          constituted a scientific experiment.
(15)             The experiment was described in a paper presented to the Paris Academy in
          1894.Two sequences of twenty photographs each, one from the side and one from
          behind, show a white cat in the act of righting itself. Grainy and quaint though they
          are, the photos show that the cat was dropped upside down, with no initial spin and
          still landed on its feet. Careful analysis of the photos reveals the secret: As the cat
(20)   rotates the front of its body clockwise, the rear and tail twist counterclockwise, so that
          the total spin remains zero, in perfect accord with Newton’s laws. Halfway down, the
          cat pulls in its legs before reversing its twist and then extends them again, with the
          desired end result. The explanation was that while no body can acquire spin without
          torque, a flexible one can readily change its orientation, or phase. Cats know this
(25)   instinctively, but scientists could not be sure how it happened until they increased the
          speed of their perceptions a thousandfold.

31. What does the passage mainly discuss?
 

32. The word “process” in line 10 refers to

33. Why are the photographs mentioned in line 16 referred to as an “experiment”?
 

34. Which of the following can be inferred about high-speed photography in the late 1800’s?
 

35. The word “rotates” in line 19 is closest in meaning to

36. According to the passage, a cat is able to right itself in midair because it is

37. The word “readily” in line 24 is closest in meaning to

38. How did scientists increase “the speed of their perceptions a thousandfold” (lines 25-26)?

39. What does the passage mainly discuss?

40. According to the passage, the population of the United States was first classified as rural or urban in

Question 41 – 50

                   The changing profile of a city in the United States is apparent in the shifting
          definitions used by the United States Bureau of the Census. In 1870 the census
          officially distinguished the nation’s “urban” from its “rural” population for the first
          time. “Urban population” was defined as persons living in towns of 8,000 inhabitants
(5)    or more. But after 1900 it meant persons living in incorporated places having 2,500 or
          more inhabitants.
                    Then, in 1950 the Census Bureau radically changed its definition of urban to take
          account of the new vagueness of city boundaries. In addition to persons living in
          incorporated units of 2,500 or more, the census now included those who lived in
(10)   unincorporated units of that size, and also all persons living in the densely settled urban
          fringe, including both incorporated and unincorporated areas located around cities of
          50,000 inhabitants or more. Each such unit, conceived as an integrated economic and
          social unit with a large population nucleus, was named a Standard Metropolitan
          Statistical Area (SMSA).
 (15)           Each SMSA would contain at least (a) one central city with 50,000 inhabitants or
          more or (b) two cities having shared boundaries and constituting, for general economic
          and social purposes, a single community with a combined population of at least 50,000,
          the smaller of which must have a population of at least 15,000. Such an area would
          include the county in which the central city was located, and adjacent counties that
(20)  were found to be metropolitan in character and economically and socially integrated
          with the county of the central city. By 1970, about two-thirds of the population of the
          United States was living in these urbanized areas, and of that figure more than half
          were living outside the central cities.
                   While the Census Bureau and the United States government used the term SMSA
(25)  (by 1969 there were 233 of them), social scientists were also using new terms to
          describe the elusive, vaguely defined areas reaching out from what used to be simple
          “towns” and “cities.” A host of terms came into use: “metropolitan regions,” “polynucleated
          population groups,” “conurbations,” “metropolitan clusters,” “megalopolises” and so on.

41. The word “distinguished” in line 3 is closest in meaning to

42. Prior to 1900, how many inhabitants would a town have to have before being defined as urban?

43. According to the passage, why did the Census Bureau revise the definition of urban in 1950?

44. The word “those” in line 9 refers to

45. The word “constituting” in line 16 is closest in meaning to

46. The word “which” in line 18 refers to a smaller

47. Which of the following is NOT true of an SMSA?

48. By 1970, what proportion of the population in the United States did NOT live in an SMSA?

49. The Census Bureau first used the term “SMSA” in

50. Where in the passage does the author mention names used by social scientists for an urban area?