3. C
The author notes that biomes are distinguished primarily by the kind of plants that are most prevalent and offers the temperate grassland as an example of a biome. As a result, you can infer that the “grasses and scrub brush” mentioned are the plants that occur most frequently in the temperate grassland. “Control” (A) matches the primary definition for dominate but does not make sense in the paragraph. “Rule over” (B) is a common meaning of the word dominate that does not fit here. (C)
matches neatly, but even if you were unaware of this meaning for overwhelm, you could still have reached it by process of elimination.
Although grasses and scrub brush are the most prevalent features, this doesn’t mean that they take all attention away from other features of the biome, so “overshadow” (D) is incorrect.
4. C
Remember, valid inferences do not stray far from the text. The passage says that grasses and scrub brush dominate the landscape of temperate grassland biomes, and that these areas “remain relatively dry throughout the year.” Look for a statement that follows directly from these facts. (A) is extreme; passage states that grasses and scrub brush are prevalent in the biome but never indicates that this biome is the only area where
these plants are found. (B) is also extreme; the passage doesn’t indicate that these plants can thrive only in dry climates, just that they do thrive in this biome. (C) makes sense; if the plants thrive in an area that is always dry, they must not require too much water. (D) is extreme as well; the passage describes these particular plants as structurally simple, but this does not mean that all grasses and scrub brush are structurally simple.
5. D
It is important to keep in mind the general tone of a reading passage, because you can usually eliminate incorrect answer choices based on their mismatch with the author’s tone or meaning. Here, although the author mentions some of the unrivaled strengths of the human brain, nowhere in the text is one animal’s brain described as superior to another’s. The last sentence in the first paragraph, beginning “While
these relative strengths and weaknesses . . .” clearly illustrates this nonjudgmental tone and indicates that the author is comparing the brain capabilities of various animals to describe how the human brain differs and can be distinguished. (A) is a distortion; this choice does not match the tone of the text, which does not describe one animal’s brain as more sophisticated than another’s. (B) is a misused detail; while the author’s comparisons may have this effect, the diversity of brain types is neither mentioned nor emphasized in the passage. (C) is out of scope; the author mentions only the human brain as having plasticity. (D) is a great fit for your prediction.
6. C
Before making your answer selection, make sure to consider the surrounding context. The reference is being used as an example that supports the preceding sentence: “In terms of what it can do, the human brain is in some ways unable to match the brain functioning of ‘lower’
animals; in other ways, its capabilities are quite unrivaled.” In other words, it supports the idea that the brain capabilities of different animals vary so dramatically that it is hard to compare one to another, which matches (C). Choice (A) is distortion; while the paragraph does not focus on cats and dogs, nowhere is it suggested that this information is
irrelevant. Choice (B) is out of scope; the paragraph does not discuss how humans have historically represented our sensory capabilities.
Choice (D) is out of scope; the paragraph does not mention any “great weaknesses” of the brains of cats and dogs.
7. A
In a context question, don’t worry too much about what you know of any given word; instead, focus only on how this word fits within the sentence where it is used. In this case, notice that earlier in the sentence, the word attributed is used in essentially the same way as the cited word—that is, connecting the characteristics and capabilities of the human brain with the concept of plasticity. “Connected” (A) is a great match for your
prediction. “Drawn” (B) fits with the primary definition of the word traced but not its context in the passage. “Searched” (C) matches another meaning of the cited word, but the author is implying more than just the
idea of a search. “Copied” (D) is another meaning of traced but does not fit its specific meaning here.
8. D
Ramsay appears toward the middle of the passage after the author mentions that scientists doubted helium exists only on the sun. Since Ramsay’s experiment with naturally occurring Earth minerals occurs in the next sentence, the correct answer would be something that cites discovering helium on Earth, and (D) fits this well.
9. C
The passage states that Janssen and Lockyer observed the sun using their spectroscopes and discovered a new yellow line that belonged to an unknown element. Reading the next sentence reveals that Janssen and Lockyer’s work was doubted by many other scientists (C).
10. C
The passage discusses industrial uses for precious stones, so the correct answer choice (C) should pretty much jump out at you.
11. B
The passage notes parenthetically that a ruby is a sapphire with
chromium “impurities,” so one can logically infer that both gems come from the same kind of stone, choice (B).
Vocabulary and Spelling 1. C
Sometimes, if you are having trouble with a word, such as resignation here, try coming up with a different form of the same word—another part of speech—and then working on a synonym for the related word. For instance, if you come up with resigned, you might be able to make an easier sentence, such as: He was resigned to defeat. And from this you figure out that resignation most nearly means acceptance.
2. A
Even if you only have a vague notion of the meaning of tangible, you might have a sense that something tangible can be felt or seen, as oppose to intangible objects, which cannot. From that, you should be able to pick real (A) as the closest match.
3. A
When the question doesn’t provide a context, try to come up with your own. Maybe you’ve heard something like: “The plan is feasible.” Which answer choice best describes a plan? Feasible does mean workable or viable.
4. C
Since the im- prefix means not, then something impure is not pure. The correct answer choice will be a synonym for pure. Unalloyed means not alloyed, or unmixed. If you did not know what unalloyed meant, you could have tried to eliminate other answer choices to help you make an
educated guess.
5. D
The answer choices tell you that scale is being used as a verb. To scale is to climb up, as in scale a mountain. The correct answer choice will mean climb down. Descend means to climb down. This is the correct answer. If you needed to guess, you could eliminate collapse and weigh, since they have no clear opposites.
6. B
Levity means lightness or humor. The correct answer choice will be a word that means seriousness or lack of humor. Gravity is not only the force that holds us to Earth, but it also means seriousness. This is the correct answer.
7. D
Optimistic means full of hope; sage means full of wisdom.
8. C
An agenda is a plan for a meeting, and a program is a plan for a play.
9. C
One forges a signature and one counterfeits money.
10. A
The correct spelling is neutral.
11. A
The correct spelling is accessible.
12. C
The correct spelling is negligence.
13. C
The correct spelling is excellent.
14. A
The correct spelling is available.
15. B
The correct spelling is cafeteria.
16. A
The correct spelling is interrupt.
Mathematics
1. C
Subtract 100 from both sides of the equation to find x = 0.
2. D
Percent change is actual change over original amount. The change from 12 to 9 is 3. The amount being changed from is 12, so , or 25% is the percent decrease. 25% of 40 is 40(.25) = 10, so the percent decrease from 40 to 40 − 10 = 30 is the same as the percent decrease from 12 to 9. Another way to solve this problem is to set up a proportion: , where x is the number we are looking for. Cross-multiply to find 12x = 360, then divide by 12 to find x = 30.
3. D
Each month has 15 days, so 700 days is months. Each year has 9 months, so = months is = . This means 5 full years have gone by.
4. D
Do what’s in parentheses first:
Then, to divide fractions, invert the one after the division sign and multiply:
5. D
Probability is defined as the number of desired events divided by the total number of possible events. There are 5 + 6 + 4 = 15 pens in the
knapsack. If he pulls out 1 pen, there are 15 different pens he might pick, or 15 possible outcomes. The desired outcome is that the pen be either
red or black. The group of acceptable pens consists of 4 + 6, or 10 pens.
So the probability that one of these pens will be picked is 10 of 15, or , which we can reduce to .
6. D
Pick numbers for p, w, and x that work well in the problem. Let p = 3 and let w = 100. So there are three pages with 100 words per page, or 300 words total. Say he types 5 words a minute, so x = 5. Therefore, he types 5 × 60, or 300 words an hour. It takes him 1 hour to type the paper. The only answer choice that equals 1 when p = 3, w = 100, and x = 5 is choice (D).
7. B
The ratio of teachers to students is 1 to 10, so there might be only 1 teacher and 10 students, or there might be 50 teachers and 500
students, or just about any number of teachers and students that are in the ratio 1 to 10. That means that the teachers and the students can be divided into groups of 11:1 teacher and 10 students in each group. Think of it as a school with a large number of classrooms, all with 1 teacher and 10 students, for a total of 11 people in each room. So, the total number of teachers and students in the school must be a multiple of 11. If you look at the answer choices, you’ll notice that 121, choice (B), is the only multiple of 11, so (B) must be correct.
8. D
This is a straightforward substitution problem. Plug in the given values and remember your order of operations (PEMDAS). 32 − 2(1) = 9 − 2(1) = 9 − 2 = 7.
9. B
If a machine caps 5 bottles every 2 seconds, then it would cap 30 times as many bottles in one minute (since a minute is 60 seconds). 5 × 30 = 150 bottles per minute, choice (B).
10. A
If , then Cross-multiply to find x = 6.
11. C
We want to solve for the original price, the whole. The percent markdown is 25%, so $48 is 75% of the whole.
Percent × Whole = Part 75% × Original Price = $48 Original Price = = $64 12. C
Use the formula: Percent × Whole = Part.
30% is , or . So = part, and choice (C) is correct.
13. D
The first 3 minutes of the phone call cost 75¢ or $0.75 dollars. If the
entire call lasted x minutes, the rest of the call lasted x − 3 minutes. Each minute after the first 3 cost 15¢ or $0.15, so the rest of the call cost
$0.15(x − 3). Thus, the cost of the entire call is 0.75 + 0.15(x − 3) dollars.
14. D
2 × 104 = 20,000. 5 × 103 = 5,000. 6 × 102 = 600.
4 × 101 = 40. So the sum is 25,640.
15. C
All you have to do here is solve the equation, but instead of solving it for n, you have to solve it for 4n. If 2n + 3 = 5, then you can subtract 3 from both sides of the equation to get 2n = 2. Multiplying both sides of this equation by 2 gives you 4n = 4, choice (C).
16. A
Looking at the graph, you can see that the number of books borrowed in January was 300. To find the total number of books borrowed during the first six months of the year, add the values of each bar:
300 + 350 + 400 + 450 + 500 + 400 = 2,400 books.
So the number of books borrowed in January is of the total number of books borrowed during the first 6 months of the year.
17. B
Rather than dealing with fractions of the business, let’s say that there are 100 total shares. At the beginning of the problem, the 4 women each own 20 shares and the man owns 20 shares. One woman sells of her part of the business, 10 shares, to the man. Another woman sells of her part of the business which is shares to the man. Now the man owns 20 + 10 + 15 = 45 shares out of the total 100 shares in the business. , so the man owns of the business.
Science 1. B
Animals that consume plants are called herbivores.
2. C
The kingdom archaebacteria is considered the most primitive kingdom.
3. B
Diffusion is the tendency of molecules or ions to move from areas of higher concentration to areas of lower concentration until the
concentration is uniform throughout the system. Diffusion explains how gases in the air spread out when released from a location where the concentration of their molecules is higher than in the space surrounding their source.
4. B
Mitosis is the process of nuclear cell division and chromosomal replication that results in two daughter nuclei with identical DNA sequences.
5. D
The diaphragm is a muscular band of tissue that contracts to permit air to enter the lungs.
6. C
When a patient breathes through a tracheotomy, the air entering the
respiratory system bypasses a very important area—the nasal cavities. In an individual breathing normally, the extensive surfaces of the nasal
passageways warm and almost completely humidify the air, and particles are filtered out by nasal air turbulence. Since the air reaching the lungs of a tracheotomy patient has not been warmed or humidified, lung crusting and infection often result.
7. A
The alveoli are the location for the exchange of oxygen and carbon dioxide within the lungs.
8. A
Lysosomes have an acidic interior to enhance the activity of lysosomal enzymes that degrade biomolecules. The lysosomal membrane
separates the acidic interior of the lysosome from the rest of the cell, which has a neutral pH.
9. B
Oogenesis is the process whereby primary oocytes undergo meiosis to produce one egg (or ovum) and two or three polar bodies.
10. C
In a neutral atom, the number of negatively charged electrons is equal to the number of positively charged protons.
11. D
Because gas molecules have the greatest freedom to move around, gases have the greatest disorder. Liquids are more dense than gases and therefore the molecules experience stronger intermolecular
attractions and are less free to move around. The arrangement of molecules in solids is the least random.
12. C
The random motion of a gas holds the most translational kinetic energy.
13. D
An element whose outer shell is full is called a noble gas.
14. B
Of the wave states listed, X-rays have the highest frequency in the
electromagnetic spectrum (gamma rays have an even higher frequency).
15. C
The recoil action of a shooting gun is explained by Newton’s Third Law of Motion; that is, for every action there is an equal and opposite reaction.
16. A
The law of charges states that like charges repel each other and unlike charges attract each other.