Reading Test

Answers and Explanations for Questions 20 through 28

The following are explanations of answers to questions 20 through 28. The heading of each explanation is hyperlinked to the actual question. In addition, each explanation is followed by two hyperlinks: one to the question explained and one to the next question.

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Explanation for question 20.

Choice C is the best answer. The author is someone who knows about advances in hibernator research but isn’t necessarily an active participant in that research.

Choice A is incorrect because the passage mentions that “Fröbert and his colleagues” (follow link to sentence 1 of paragraph 6) are conducting hibernator research. Choice B is incorrect because the passage discusses the heart health of bears but never provides evidence that this research is contested. Choice D is incorrect because the passage focuses on hibernating animals and their health more than wildlife preservation.

Link back to question 20.

Link back to question 21.

Explanation for question 21.

Choice D is the best answer. The author begins the passage by suggesting that the bear hibernation research may be beneficial to human health: “Understanding how hibernators, including ground squirrels, marmots and bears, survive their long winter’s naps may one day offer solutions for problems such as heart disease, osteoporosis and muscular dystrophy” (follow link to sentence 1 of paragraph 1). In the last paragraph of the passage, the author suggests that Fröbert hopes to use his research findings to “stave off hardened arteries in humans as well” (follow link to sentence 3 of paragraph 11).

Choice A is incorrect because the passage briefly mentions ground squirrels and does not specifically compare them to bears. Choice B is incorrect because the passage clearly states that during hibernation fat acts as fuel for a resting animal. Choice C is incorrect because the passage discusses exercise only within the context of bears.

Link back to question 21.

Link back to question 22.

Explanation for question 22.

Choice A is the best answer. This sentence supports the idea that one of the goals of the hibernation research discussed in the passage is to try to improve human health: “Understanding how hibernators, including ground squirrels, marmots and bears, survive their long winter’s naps may one day offer solutions for problems such as heart disease, osteoporosis and muscular dystrophy” (follow link to sentence 1 of paragraph 1).

Choices B, C, and D are incorrect because they do not address the main goal of the hibernator research. Choice B is incorrect because sentence 1 of paragraph 3 (follow link) describes only one aspect of hibernation: fat as fuel. Choices C and D are incorrect because sentence 1 of paragraph 6 (follow link) and sentence 1 of paragraph 8 (follow link) describe the field research, not the goal of this research.

Link back to question 22.

Link back to question 23.

Explanation for question 23.

Choice B is the best answer. In paragraph 3 (follow link) the molecular biologist Matthew Andrews explains how fat is important to hibernating animals, stating “‘Fat is where it’s at’” and “‘You bring your own lunch with you.’” The use of this nonscientific language creates a conversational tone that allows readers to understand what might otherwise be a complex topic.

Choices A, C, and D are incorrect because Andrews’s phrases, such as “‘Fat is where it’s at,’” are relaxed rather than bleak, ominous, or absurd.

Link back to question 23.

Link back to question 24.

Explanation for question 24.

Choice B is the best answer. Sentence 1 of paragraph 4 (follow link) describes how fat is important to hibernating animals, as “[b]igger fat stores mean a greater chance of surviving until spring.” In this context, hibernating animals have “stores,” or reserves, of fat that they put away for later use.

Choices A, C, and D are incorrect because in this context “stores” does not mean preservatives, stacks, or shelters.

Link back to question 24.

Link back to question 25.

Explanation for question 25.

Choice D is the best answer. The passage concludes by noting that “Fröbert hopes to find some protective molecule that could stave off hardened arteries in humans as well” (follow link to sentence 3 of paragraph 11). This makes clear the scientist’s belief that even though bears begin hibernation while “‘very, very fat’” (follow link to sentence 2 of paragraph 10) and do not exercise for many months, these animals have some molecule that protects them from hardened arteries.

Choices A and B are incorrect because paragraph 10 (follow link) explains that the bears’ elevated plasma cholesterol levels combined with the sluggish circulation that results from their lack of exercise during hibernation are “a recipe for hardened arteries” (follow link to sentence 5 of paragraph 10). Choice C is incorrect because sentence 2 of paragraph 10 states that hibernating bears “get zero exercise during hibernation” (follow link).

Link back to question 25.

Link back to question 26.

Explanation for question 26.

Choice D is the best answer. The passage concludes by noting that “Fröbert hopes to find some protective molecule that could stave off hardened arteries in humans as well” (follow link to sentence 3 of paragraph 11). This sentence explains Fröbert’s hypothesis that the reason bears do not “build up such artery-hardening streaks” (follow link to sentence 1 of paragraph 11) is because they have some molecule that protects them from hardened arteries.

Choices A, B, and C are incorrect because they do not address Fröbert’s hypothesis. Choice A is incorrect because sentence 1 of paragraph 4 (follow link) highlights the importance of fat to hibernators. Choice B is incorrect because sentence 2 of paragraph 5 (follow link) describes the diet of one group of hibernating bears. Choice C is incorrect because sentence 1 of paragraph 11 (follow link) describes the hardening of arteries in inactive humans.

Link back to question 26.

Link back to question 27.

Explanation for question 27.

Choice A is the best answer. The graph (follow link) compares the total plasma cholesterol found in seven bears during periods of their hibernation and nonhibernation, exemplifying how that cholesterol is generally higher during the hibernating stage. Meanwhile, sentence 1 of paragraph 10 describes the very phenomena that the graph depicts (follow link): “Recent analyses revealed that Scandinavian brown bears spend the summer with plasma cholesterol levels considered high for humans; those values then increase substantially for hibernation, Fröbert and his colleagues reported.”

Choices B, C, and D are incorrect because none of the other sentences in paragraph 10 (follow link) discuss the comparative levels of plasma cholesterol found in bears during their hibernating and nonhibernating phases. Sentence 2 of paragraph 10 (follow link) describes how bears spend their hibernating phase. Sentence 3 of paragraph 10 (follow link) describes the poor circulation those bears experience during hibernation. Sentence 5 of paragraph 10 (follow link) explains the heart risks that may occur in humans who are overweight and inactive.

Link back to question 27.

Link back to question 28.

Explanation for question 28.

Choice A is the best answer because the graph (follow link) shows that six of the seven bears experienced increased plasma cholesterol during hibernation; the seventh bear experienced neither an increase nor a decrease in plasma cholesterol.

Choices B, C, and D are incorrect because they are not supported by the graph (follow link).

Link back to question 28.



This is the end of the answers and explanations for questions 20 through 28. Go on to the next page to begin a new passage.

Questions 29 through 37 are based on the following passage.

This passage is from Andrew Carnegie, "Wealth," originally published in 1889. Arriving penniless in Pennsylvania from Scotland in 1848, Carnegie became one of the richest people in the United States through the manufacture of steel.

The problem of our age is the proper administration of wealth, that the ties of brotherhood may still bind together the rich and poor in harmonious relationship. The conditions of human life have not only been changed, but revolutionized, within the past few hundred years. In former days there was little difference between the dwelling, dress, food, and environment of the chief and those of his retainers. . . . The contrast between the palace of the millionaire and the cottage of the laborer with us today measures the change which has come with civilization. This change, however, is not to be deplored, but welcomed as highly beneficial. It is well, nay, essential, for the progress of the race that the houses of some should be homes for all that is highest and best in literature and the arts, and for all the refinements of civilization, rather than that none should be so. Much better this great irregularity than universal squalor. Without wealth there can be no Maecenas.* (Follow link to endnote.) The “good old times” were not good old times. Neither master nor servant was as well situated then as today. A relapse to old conditions would be disastrous to both—not the least so to him who serves—and would sweep away civilization with it. But whether the change be for good or ill, it is upon us, beyond our power to alter, and, therefore, to be accepted and made the best of. It is a waste of time to criticize the inevitable.

It is easy to see how the change has come. One illustration will serve for almost every phase of the cause. In the manufacture of products we have the whole story. It applies to all combinations of human industry, as stimulated and enlarged by the inventions of this scientific age. Formerly, articles were manufactured at the domestic hearth, or in small shops which formed part of the household. The master and his apprentices worked side by side, the latter living with the master, and therefore subject to the same conditions. When these apprentices rose to be masters, there was little or no change in their mode of life, and they, in turn, educated succeeding apprentices in the same routine. There was, substantially, social equality, and even political equality, for those engaged in industrial pursuits had then little or no voice in the State.

The inevitable result of such a mode of manufacture was crude articles at high prices. Today the world obtains commodities of excellent quality at prices which even the preceding generation would have deemed incredible. In the commercial world similar causes have produced similar results, and the race is benefited thereby. The poor enjoy what the rich could not before afford. What were the luxuries have become the necessaries of life. The laborer has now more comforts than the farmer had a few generations ago. The farmer has more luxuries than the landlord had, and is more richly clad and better housed. The landlord has books and pictures rarer and appointments more artistic than the king could then obtain.

The price we pay for this salutary change is, no doubt, great. We assemble thousands of operatives in the factory, and in the mine, of whom the employer can know little or nothing, and to whom he is little better than a myth. All intercourse between them is at an end. Rigid castes are formed, and, as usual, mutual ignorance breeds mutual distrust. Each caste is without sympathy for the other, and ready to credit anything disparaging in regard to it. Under the law of competition, the employer of thousands is forced into the strictest economies, among which the rates paid to labor figure prominently, and often there is friction between the employer and the employed, between capital and labor, between rich and poor. Human society loses homogeneity.

The price which society pays for the law of competition, like the price it pays for cheap comforts and luxuries, is also great; but the advantages of this law are also greater still than its cost—for it is to this law that we owe our wonderful material development, which brings improved conditions in its train.

*Endnote.

Gaius Maecenas (70 to 8 B.C.E.) was a great patron of the arts.

Question 29.

Which choice best describes the structure of the first paragraph?

A. A personal history is narrated, historical examples are given, and a method is recommended.

B. A position is stated, historical context is given, and earnest advice is given.

C. Certain principles are stated, opposing principles are stated, and a consensus is reached.

D. A historical period is described, and its attributes are reviewed.

Answer and Explanation. (Follow link to explanation for question 29.)

Question 30.

The author most strongly implies which of the following about “the ties of brotherhood” (follow link to sentence 1 of paragraph 1)?

A. They were always largely fictitious and are more so at present.

B. They are stronger at present than they ever were before.

C. They are more seriously strained in the present than in the past.

D. They will no longer be able to bring together the rich and the poor.

Answer and Explanation. (Follow link to explanation for question 30.)

Question 31.

The author uses “dwelling, dress, food, and environment” (follow link to sentence 3 of paragraph 1) as examples of

A. things more valued in the present than in the past.

B. bare necessities of life.

C. things to which all people are entitled.

D. possible indications of differences in status.

Answer and Explanation. (Follow link to explanation for question 31.)

Question 32.

The author describes the people who live in the “houses of some” (follow link to sentence 6 of paragraph 1) as interested in the

A. materials from which their houses are constructed.

B. size of their homes.

C. advantages of culture.

D. pedigree of their guests.

Answer and Explanation. (Follow link to explanation for question 32.)

Question 33.

Which choice provides the best evidence for the answer to question 32?

A. Link to: “the palace of the millionaire and the cottage of the laborer,” which is in sentence 4 of paragraph 1.

B. Link to: “all that is highest and best in literature and the arts,” which is in sentence 6 of paragraph 1.

C. Link to: “Much better this great irregularity than universal squalor,” which is sentence 7 of paragraph 1.

D. Link to: “Without wealth there can be no Maecenas,” which is sentence 8 of paragraph 1.

Answer and Explanation. (Follow link to explanation for question 33.)

Question 34.

The author uses the phrase “good old times” (follow link to sentence 9 of paragraph 1) as an example of

A. a cliché that still has life and usefulness left in it.

B. a bit of folk wisdom from his childhood.

C. something said by those who have acquired great riches.

D. something said by people who do not share his viewpoint.

Answer and Explanation. (Follow link to explanation for question 34.)

Question 35.

What is the author’s main point about the disadvantages of the modern economic system?

A. It provides only a few people with the advantages of culture.

B. It replicates many of the problems experienced in the past.

C. It creates divisions between different categories of people.

D. It gives certain people great material advantages over others.

Answer and Explanation. (Follow link to explanation for question 35.)

Question 36.

Which choice provides the best evidence for the answer to question 35?

A. Link to: “The master and his apprentices worked side by side, the latter living with the master, and therefore subject to the same conditions,” which is sentence 6 of paragraph 2.

B. Link to: “There was, substantially, social equality, and even political equality, for those engaged in industrial pursuits had then little or no voice in the State,” which is sentence 8 of paragraph 2.

C. Link to: “The inevitable result of such a mode of manufacture was crude articles at high prices,” which is sentence 1 of paragraph 3.

D. Link to: “All intercourse between them is at an end,” which is sentence 3 of paragraph 4.

Answer and Explanation. (Follow link to explanation for question 36.)

Question 37.

As used in sentence 1 of paragraph 5 (follow link), “in its train” is closest in meaning to

A. before it.

B. with it.

C. anticipating it.

D. advancing it.

Answer and Explanation. (Follow link to explanation for question 37.)

Answers and explanations for questions 29 through 37 are provided in the next section of this document (pages 66 through 75). You may skip directly to the beginning of the next passage on page 76 (follow link) if you do not want to review answers and explanations now.