GRE-1

1. Many find it strange that her writing is thought to be tortuous; her recent essays, although longer than most of her earlier essays, are extremely .___________

2. Most spacecraft are still at little risk of collision with space debris during their operational lifetimes, but given the numbers of new satellites launched each year, the orbital environment in the future is likely to be less ___________

3. The author presents the life of Zane Grey with ___________ unusual in a biographer: he is not even convinced that Grey was a good writer.

4. The unironic representation of objects from everyday life is (i) ___________ seri- ous American art of the twentieth century: “high” artists ceded the straightfor- ward depiction of the (ii) ___________ to illustrators, advertisers, and packaging designers.

5. A newly published, laudatory biography of George Bernard Shaw fails, like others before it, to capture the essence of his personality: the more he is (i) ___________, the more his true self seems to (ii) ___________ .

6. Although he has long had a reputation for (i) ___________ , his behavior toward his coworkers has always been (ii) ___________ , suggesting he may not be as insolent as people generally think.

7. There is nothing that (i) ___________ scientists more than having an old problem in their field solved by someone from outside. If you doubt this (ii) ___________, just think about the (iii) ___________ reaction of paleontologists to the hypothesis of Luis Alvarez—a physicist—and Walter Alvarez—a geologist—that the extinction of the dinosaurs was caused by the impact of a large meteor on the surface of the planet.

8. If one could don magic spectacles—with lenses that make the murky depths of the ocean become transparent—and look back several centuries to an age before widespread abuse of the oceans began, even the most (i) ___________ observer would quickly discover that fish were formerly much more abundant. Likewise, many now-depleted species of marine mammals would appear (ii) ___________. But without such special glasses, the differences between past and present oceans are indeed hard to (iii) ___________ .

9. The passage suggests that the history of criminal law in early modern England dif- fers from the history of civil law during that same period in that the history of criminal law

10. The author of the passage mentions the occupations of those involved in civil liti- gation in early modern England most likely in order to

11. The author of the passage suggests which of the following about the “widespread assumption” (line 15 )?

12. The author discusses “the standard view” (line 14 ) most likely in order to identify a view that

13. According to the passage, which of the following is a widely held belief about geese?

14. Which of the following, if true, most weakens the editorial’s argument?

15. The slower-learning monkeys searched ___________ but unintelligently: although they worked closely together, they checked only the most obvious hiding places.

16. By about age eight, children’s phonetic capacities are fully developed but still ___________; thus children at that age can learn to speak a new language with a native speaker’s accent.

17. In medieval philosophy every physical phenomenon is presumed to have some determinate cause, leaving no place for ___________ in the explanation of particular events.

18. Although the film is rightly judged imperfect by most of today’s critics, the films being created today are ___________ it, since its release in 1940 provoked sufficient critical discussion to enhance the intellectual respectability of cinema considerably.

19. The detective’s conviction that there were few inept crimes in her district led her to impute some degree of ___________ to every suspect she studied.

20. According to the passage, the phenomenon of olfactory adaptation may cause indi- viduals who are reexposed to an odorous environment after an extended absence to

21. The passage asserts which of the following about the exposures involved in the “research on olfactory adaptation”(line 11)?

22. The author of the passage discusses “receptor fatigue”(line 24) primarily in order to

23. The passage suggests that an adherent to the “orthodox position”( )would agree with which of the following statements?

24. Replacement of the word “passive”(line 3) which of the following words results in the least change in meaning for the passage?

25. Which of the following, if true, most strengthens the argument?

26. This filmmaker is not outspoken on political matters: her films are known for their aesthetic qualities rather than for their______ ones.

27. James Boswell’s Life of Samuel Johnson is generally thought to have established Boswell as the first great modern biographer; yet the claim of _______could be made for Johnson himself as author of a life of Richard Savage.

28. Critics charge that the regulatory agency, having never defined what constitutes an untenable risk, has grown (i)_______ outside influences on that issue: several experts have (ii)_______ it recently for allowing one power plant to delay an inspec- tion for more than six weeks despite compelling safety concerns.

29. Television promotes (i)_______ of emotion in viewers through an unnatural evocation, every five minutes, of different and (ii)_______ feelings

30. Because we assume the (i) _______of natural design, nature can often (ii)_______ us: as the Wright brothers noted, the birds initially misled them in almost every particular, but their Flyer eventually succeeded by being the least avian of the early flying machines.

31. Colleagues describe Padgett as both forthright and reticent, humble and (i)_____ , good-natured and (ii)_____ . And in her behavior as a businesswoman, Padgett herself does little to (iii) _____these contradictions. She says she is proemployee but is avowedly antiunion. She calls herself procustomer but acknowledges that she runs a store with higher profit margins and prices than almost any other grocer.

32. Historical research makes two somewhat antithetical truths that sounded (i)_____ come to seem profound: knowledge of the past comes entirely from written documents, giving written words great (ii)______ , and the more material you uncover, the more (iii)_____ your subject becomes.

33. The recent publication of the painter Robert Motherwell’s substantial body of writ- ing, as well as writings by fellow Expressionist Barnett Newman, (i)____ Ann Gib- son’s assertion that the Abstract Expressionists were reluctant to (ii)____ issues of artistic meaning in their work and suggests that this supposed reticence was perhaps more artistic (iii)_____ than historical fact

34. The passage is primarily concerned with

35. The passage suggests that Carnell sees Behn’s novels featuring male protagonists as differing from dramatic tragedies such as Dryden’s featuring male protagonists in that the former

36. The passage suggests that Carnell believes Behn held which of the following atti- tudes about the relationship between the private and public spheres?

37. It can be inferred from the passage that the “artificial distinction”(line 53-54) refers to the

38. The passage mentions which of the following as adversely affecting the accuracy of computer predictions of climate change?

39. In the context in which it appears, “amplifies” (line 11) most nearly means

40. Which of the following is an assumption on which the argument depends?

41. Female video artists’ rise to prominence over the past 30 years has_____ the ascent of video as an art form: it is only within the past three decades that video art has attained its current, respected status.

42. The report’s most significant weakness is its assumption that the phenomenon under study is _______, when in reality it is limited to a specific geographic area.

43. The spy’s repeated bungling was, above all else,_____ those who wished to thwart her efforts, since it was so unpredictable as to obscure any pattern that might otherwise lead to her capture.

44. Each member of the journalistic pair served as______ the other: each refrained from publishing a given piece if the other doubted that it was ready to be printed.

45. The author of the passage refers to the use of honey primarily to

46. Which sentence presents a misconception that the passage challenges?

47. The passage suggests that which of the following could help remedy the problem described in the final sentence (line 14-17)

48. In the context in which it appears, “sensational”(line 16) most nearly means

49. In the context of the passage as a whole, the primary function of the sentence in lines 10-12 is to

50. Which of the following might provide an explanation for the popularity of hand-in portraits that would satisfy the author of the passage?

51. In terms of y, what is the average (arithmetic mean) of 4y and 22 ?

54. Susan travels by car at an average speed of 50 miles per hour for 4 hours and then at an average speed of 20 miles per hour for 2 hours. What is her average speed, in miles per hour, for the entire 6-hour trip?

57. For which of the following values of x is the mode of 2x, x + 5, 3x − 2, 5x − 7, and 4x equal to 4 ?

59. How many committees of 5 members can be chosen from a group of 8 people?

60. The average (arithmetic mean) number of passengers on a subway car is 60. If the number of passengers on a car has a normal distribution with a standard deviation of 20, approximately what percent of subway cars carry more than 80 passengers?

61. If the average of 10, 12, n, and n is greater than 25, what is the least possible value of integer n ?

65. If the average (arithmetic mean) of 31, 41, and p is between 29 and 47, inclusive, what is the least possible value of (p – 7)2 =

68. In both rural and urban areas of country G, the average annual number of holidays taken by citizens is 8, and the annual number of holidays follows a normal distribution. In rural areas, 2% of the citizens take more than 12 holidays per year. In urban areas, 2% of the citizens take more than 16 holidays per year. How much greater is the standard deviation of the annual number of holidays taken by urban citizens than that of rural citizens?

69. Three dice are rolled simultaneously. What is the probability that exactly two of the dice will come up as the same number?

70. There are 32 students in Jamie’s eighth-grade class. Each student took a 50-point test; the class average (arithmetic mean) was 82% correct. The teacher has assigned one 4-point, extra-credit question. How many students will need to answer the extra-credit question correctly in order to bring the class average to 86% correct?

71. Vinay and Phil are driving in separate cars to Los Angeles, both leaving from the same place and traveling along the same route. If Vinay leaves at 1 a.m. and travels at 40 miles per hour, and Phil leaves at 5 a.m. and travels at 50 miles per hour, at what time does Phil catch up to Vinay?

72. Damon rolls three six-sided dice. What is the probability that his total will be greater than 16 ?

73. John will spend the summer in one of the houses either on Surf Street or Breaker Way. Surf Street has 1 landside house and 4 beachside houses, and Breaker Way has 1 beachside house and 2 landside houses. A sea turtle randomly lays eggs in front of a beachside house on Surf Street, and another sea turtle randomly lays eggs in front of a beachside house on Breaker Way. What are the probabilities that a sea turtle lays its eggs in front of John’s house, depending on which street he lives on?

74. Set A: {−7, −4, −1, 0, 5, 8, 10, 10, 13, 21} In Set A above, if positive integer x is subtracted from the 3 largest numbers in the list and x is added to the 3 smallest even numbers in the list, which of the following will be true ?

76. Which of the following could be the median for a set of integers {97, 98, 56, x, 86}, given that 20 < x < 80?

77. During a sales contest at a local electronics store, 65 employees sold a total of $91,000 worth of merchandise. If the standard deviation of sales among those employees was $130 and the sales were normally distributed, what percentage of employees sold $1270 or more worth of merchandise?

80. If the average of 5 numbers is 36 and the average of four of those numbers is 34, then what is the value of the fifth number?