Passage 11
Federal efforts to aid minority businesses began in the 1960’s when the Small Business Administration (SBA) began making federally guaranteed loans and government-sponsored management and technical assistance (5) available to minority business enterprises. While this program enabled many minority entrepreneurs to form new businesses, the results were disappointing, since managerial inexperience, unfavorable locations, and capital shortages led to high failure rates. Even 15 (10) years after the program was implemented, minority business receipts were not quite two percent of the national economy’s total receipts. Recently federal policymakers have adopted an approach intended to accelerate development of the (15) minority business sector by moving away from directly aiding small minority enterprises and toward supporting larger, growth-oriented minority firms through intermediary companies. In this approach, large corporations participate in the development of successful and stable (20) minority businesses by making use of government- sponsored venture capital. The capital is used by a participating company to establish a Minority Enterprise Small Business Investment Company or MESBIC. The MESBIC then provides capital and guidance to minority (25) businesses that have potential to become future suppliers or customers of the sponsoring company.
MESBIC’s are the result of the belief that providing established firms with easier access to relevant management techniques and more job-specific experience, as (30) well as substantial amounts of capital, gives those firms a
greater opportunity to develop sound business foundations than does simply making general management experience and small amounts of capital available. Further, since potential markets for the minority busi(35) nesses already exist through the sponsoring companies,the minority businesses face considerably less risk in terms of location and market fluctuation. Following early financial and operating problems, sponsoring corporations began to capitalize MESBIC’s far above (40) the legal minimum of $500,000 in order to generate sufficient income and to sustain the quality of management needed. MESBIC’c are now emerging as increasingly important financing sources for minority enterprises. (45)?Ironically, MESBIC staffs, which usually consist of Hispanic and Black professionals, tend to approach investments in minority firms more pragmatically than do many MESBIC directors, who are usually senior managers from sponsoring corporations. The latter (50) often still think mainly in terms of the “social responsibility approach” and thus seem to prefer deals that are riskier and less attractive than normal investment criteria would warrant. Such differences in viewpoint have produced uneasiness among many minority staff members, (55) who feel that minority entrepreneurs and businesses should be judged by established business considerations.
These staff members believe their point of view is closer to the original philosophy of MESBIC’s and they are concerned that, unless a more prudent course is followed, MESBIC directors may revert to policies likely to re-create the disappointing results of the original SBA approach.
1. Which of the following best states the central idea of the passage?
?(A) The use of MESBIC’s for aiding minority entrepreneurs seems to have greater potential for success than does the original SBA approach.
?(B) There is a crucial difference in point of view between the staff and directors of some MESBIC’s.
?(C) After initial problems with management and marketing, minority businesses have begun to expand at a steady rate.
?(D) Minority entrepreneurs wishing to form new businesses now have several equally successful federal programs on which to rely.
?(E) For the first time since 1960, large corporations are making significant contributions to the development of minority businesses.
2. According to the passage, the MESBIC approach differs from the SBA approach in that MESBIC’s
?(A) seek federal contracts to provide markets for minority businesses
?(B) encourage minority businesses to provide markets for other minority businesses
?(C) attempt to maintain a specified rate of growth in the minority business sector
?(D) rely on the participation of large corporations to finance minority businesses
?(E) select minority businesses on the basis of their location
3. Which of the following does the author cite to support the conclusion that the results of the SBA program were disappointing?
?(A) The small number of new minority enterprises formed as a result of the program
?(B) The small number of minority enterprises that took advantage of the management and technical assistance offiered under the program
?(C) The small percentage of the nation’s business receipts earned by minority enterprises following the programs, implementation.
?(D) The small percentage of recipient minority enterprises that were able to repay federally ??guaranteed loans made under the program
?(E) The small number of minority enterprises that chose to participate in the program 4. Which of the following statements about the SBA program can be inferred from the passage?
?(A) The maximum term for loans made to recipient businesses was 15 years.
?(B) Business loans were considered to be more useful to recipient businesses than was management and technical assistance.
?(C) The anticipated failure rate for recipient businesses was significantly lower than the rate that actually resulted.?(D) Recipient businesses were encouraged to relocate to areas more favorable for business development.
?(E) The capitalization needs of recipient businesses were assessed and then provided for adequately.
5. Based on information in the passage, which of the following would be indicative of the pragmatism of MESBIC staff members?
Ⅰ.A reluctance to invest in minority businesses that show marginal expectations of return on the investments
Ⅱ. A desire to invest in minority businesses that produce goods and services likely to be of use to the sponsoring company
Ⅲ. A belief that the minority business sector is best served by investing primarily in newly established businesses ??(A)Ⅰonly
?(B) Ⅲ only
?(C)Ⅰand Ⅱ only
?(D)Ⅱ and Ⅲ only
?(E)Ⅰ,Ⅱ and Ⅲ
6. The author refers to the “financial and operating problems”(line 38 ) encountered by MESBIC’s primarily in order to?
?(A) broaden the scope of the discussion to include the legal considerations of funding MESBIC’S through sponsoring companies
?(B) call attention to the fact that MESBIC’s must receive adequate funding in order to function? effectively
?(C) show that sponsoring companies were willing to invest only $500,000 of government-sponsored ?venture capital in the original MESBIC’s
?(D) compare SBA and MESBIC limits on minimum funding?
?(E) refute suggestions that MESBIC’s have been only marginally successful
7. The author’s primary objective in the passage is to
?(A) disprove the view that federal efforts to aid minority businesses have been ineffective
?(B) explain how federal efforts to aid minority businesses have changed since the 1960’s
?(C) establish a direct link between the federal efforts to aid minority businesses made before the 1960’s and those made in the 1980’s
?(D) analyze the basis for the belief that job-specific experience is more useful to minority businesses than is general management experience
?(E) argue that the “social responsibility approach” to aiding minority businesses is superior to any other approach
8. It can be inferred from the passage that the attitude of some MESBIC staff members toward the investments preferred by some MESBIC directors can best be described as
?(A) defensive
?(B) resigned??
?(C) indifferent
?(D) shocked?
?(E) disapproving?
9. The passage provides information that would answer which of the following questions?
?(A) What was the average annual amount, in dollars, of minority business receipts before the SBA strategy was implemented??
?(B) What locations are considered to be unfavorable for minority businesses?
?(C) What is the current success rate for minority businesses that are capitalized by MESBIC’s?
?(D) How has the use of federal funding for minority businesses changed since the 1960’s?
?(E) How do minority businesses apply to participate in a MESBIC program?
Passage 12
Nearly a century ago, biologists found that if they separated an invertebrate animal embryo into two parts at an early stage of its life, it would survive and develop as two normal embryos. This led them to believe that the (5)?cells in the early embryo are undetermined in the sense that each cell has the potential to develop in a variety of different ways. Later biologists found that the situation was not so simple. It matters in which plane the embryo is cut. If it is cut in a plane different from the one used (10) by the early investigators, it will not form two whole embryos.
A debate arose over what exactly was happening. Which embryo cells are determined, just when do they- become irreversibly committed to their fates, and what (15) are the “morphogenetic determinants” that tell a cell Passage 15
In the two decades between 1910 and 1930, over ten percent to the Black population of the United States left the South, where the preponderance of the Black population had been located, and migrated to northern (5) states, with the largest number moving, it is claimed, between 1916 and 1918. It has been frequently assumed, but not proved, that the majority of the migrants in what has come to be called the Great Migration came from rural areas and were motivated by two concurrent (10) factors: the collapse of the cotton industry following the boll weevil infestation, which began in 1898, and increased demand in the North for labor following the cessation of European immigration caused by the outbreak of the First World War in 1914. This assump- (15) tion has led to the conclusion that the migrants’ subsequent lack of economic mobility in the North is tied to rural background, a background that implies unfamiliarity with urban living and a lack of industrial skills.
But the question of who actually left the South has (20) never been rigorously investigated. Although numerous investigations document an exodus from rural southern areas to southern cities prior to the Great Migration. no one has considered whether the same migrants then moved on to northern cities. In 1910 over 600,000 (25) Black workers, or ten percent of the Black work force, reported themselves to be engaged in “manufacturing and mechanical pursuits,” the federal census category roughly encompassing the entire industrial sector. The Great Migration could easily have been made up entirely (30) of this group and their families. It is perhaps surprising to argue that an employed population could be enticed to move, but an explanation lies in the labor conditions then prevalent in the South. About thirty-five percent of the urban Black popu-(35) lation in the South was engaged in skilled trades. Some were from the old artisan class of slavery-blacksmiths. masons, carpenters-which had had a monopoly of certain trades, but they were gradually being pushed out by competition, mechanization, and obsolescence, (40) The remaining sixty-five percent, more recently urbanized, worked in newly developed industries---tobacco. lumber, coal and iron manufacture, and railroads. Wages in the South, however, were low, and Black workers were aware, through labor recruiters and the (45)Black press, that they could earn more even as unskilled workers in the North than they could as artisans in the South. After the boll weevil infestation, urban Black workers faced competition from the continuing influx of both Black and White rural workers, who were driven (50) to undercut the wages formerly paid for industrial jobs. Thus, a move north would be seen as advantageous to a group that was already urbanized and steadily employed, and the easy conclusion tying their subsequent economic problems in the North to their rural background comes into question.
1. The author indicates explicitly that which of the following records has been a source of information in her investigation?
?(A) United States Immigration Service reports from 1914 to 1930
?(B) Payrolls of southern manufacturing firms between 1910 and 1930
?(C) The volume of cotton exports between 1898 and 1910
?(D) The federal census of 1910
?(E) Advertisements of labor recruiters appearing in southern newspapers after 1910
2. In the passage, the author anticipates which of the following as a possible objection to her argument?
?(A) It is uncertain how many people actually migrated during the Great Migration.
?(B) The eventual economic status of the Great Migration migrants has not been adequately traced.
?(C) It is not likely that people with steady jobs would have reason to move to another area of the country.
?(D) It is not true that the term “manufacturing and mechanical pursuits” actually encompasses the entire industrial sector.
?(E) Of the Black workers living in southern cities, only those in a small number of trades were threatened by obsolescence.
3. According to the passage, which of the following is true of wages in southern cities in 1910?
?(A) They were being pushed lower as a result of increased competition.
?(B) They had begun t to rise so that southern industry could attract rural workers.
?(C) They had increased for skilled workers but decreased for unskilled workers.
?(D) They had increased in large southern cities but decreased in small southern cities.
?(E) They had increased in newly developed industries but decreased in the older trades.
4. The author cites each of the following as possible influences in a Black worker’s decision to migrate north in the Great Migration EXCEPT
?(A) wage levels in northern cities
?(B) labor recruiters
?(C) competition from rural workers
?(D) voting rights in northern states
?(E) the Black press
5. It can be inferred from the passage that the “easy conclusion” mentioned in line 53 is based on which of the following assumptions?
?(A) People who migrate from rural areas to large cities usually do so for economic reasons.
?(B) Most people who leave rural areas to take jobs in cities return to rural areas as soon as it is financially possible for them to do so.
?(C) People with rural backgrounds are less likely to succeed economically in cities than are those with urban backgrounds.
?(D) Most people who were once skilled workers are not willing to work as unskilled workers.
?(E) People who migrate from their birthplaces to other regions of country seldom undertake a second migration.
6. The primary purpose of the passage is to
?(A) support an alternative to an accepted methodology
?(B) present evidence that resolves a contradiction
?(C) introduce a recently discovered source of information
?(D) challenge a widely accepted explanation
?(E) argue that a discarded theory deserves new attention
7. According to information in the passage, which of the following is a correct sequence of groups of workers, from highest paid to lowest paid, in the period between 1910 and 1930?
?(A) Artisans in the North; artisans in the South; unskilled workers in the North; unskilled workers in the South
?(B) Artisans in the North and South; unskilled workers in the North; unskilled workers in the South
?(C) Artisans in the North; unskilled workers in the North; artisans in the South
?(D) Artisans in the North and South; unskilled urban workers in the North; unskilled rural workers in the South
?(E) Artisans in the North and South, unskilled rural workers in the North and South; unskilled urban workers in the North and South
8. The material in the passage would be most relevant to a long discussion of which of the following topics?
?(A) The reasons for the subsequent economic difficulties of those who participated in the Great Migration
?(B) The effect of migration on the regional economies of the United States following the First World War
?(C) The transition from a rural to an urban existence for those who migrated in the Great Migration
?(D) The transformation of the agricultural South following the boll weevil infestation
?(E) The disappearance of the artisan class in the United States as a consequence of mechanization in the early twentieth century
Passage 13
In 1896 a Georgia couple suing for damages in the accidental death of their two year old was told that since the child had made no real economic contribution to the family, there was no liability for damages. In contrast, (5) less than a century later, in 1979, the parents of a three year old sued in New York for accidental-death damages and won an award of $750,000.
The transformation in social values implicit in juxtaposing these two incidents is the subject of Viviana (10) Zelizer’s excellent book, Pricing the Priceless Child. During the nineteenth century, she argues, the concept of the “useful” child who contributed to the family economy gave way gradually to the present-day notion of the “useless” child who, though producing no income (15) for, and indeed extremely costly to, its parents, is yet considered emotionally “priceless.” Well established among segments of the middle and upper classes by the mid-1800’s, this new view of childhood spread throughout society in the iate-nineteenth and early-twentieth (20) centuries as reformers introduced child-labor regulations and compulsory education laws predicated in part on the assumption that a child’s emotional value made child labor taboo.
For Zelizer the origins of this transformation were (25) many and complex. The gradual erosion of children’s productive value in a maturing industrial economy, the decline in birth and death rates, especially in child mortality, and the development of the companionate family (a family in which members were united by (30) explicit bonds of love rather than duty) were all factors critical in changing the assessment of children’s worth. Yet “expulsion of children from the ‘cash nexus,’... although clearly shaped by profound changes in the economic, occupational, and family structures,” Zelizer (35) maintains. “was also part of a cultural process ‘of sacralization’ of children’s lives. ” Protecting children from the crass business world became enormously important for late-nineteenth-century middle-class Americans, she suggests; this sacralization was a way of resisting what (40) they perceived as the relentless corruption of human values by the marketplace.
In stressing the cultural determinants of a child’s worth. Zelizer takes issue with practitioners of the new “sociological economics,” who have analyzed such tradi(45) tionally sociological topics as crime, marriage, education, and health solely in terms of their economic determinants. Allowing only a small role for cultural forces in the form of individual “preferences,” these sociologists tend to view all human behavior as directed primarily by (50) the principle of maximizing economic gain. Zelizer is highly critical of this approach, and emphasizes instead the opposite phenomenon: the power of social values to transform price. As children became more valuable in emotional terms, she argues, their “exchange” or “ sur(55) render” value on the market, that is, the conversion of their intangible worth into cash terms, became much greater.
1. It can be inferred from the passage that accidental-death damage awards in America during the nineteenth century tended to be based principally on the
?(A) earnings of the person at time of death
?(B) wealth of the party causing the death
?(C) degree of culpability of the party causing the death
?(D) amount of money that had been spent on the person killed
?(E) amount of suffering endured by the family of the person killed
2. It can be inferred from the passage that in the early 1800’s children were generally regarded by their families as individuals who
?(A) needed enormous amounts of security and affection
?(B) required constant supervision while working
?(C) were important to the economic well-being of a family
?(D) were unsuited to spending long hours in school
?(E) were financial burdens assumed for the good of society
3. which of the following alternative explanations of the change in the cash value of children would be most likely to be put forward by sociological economists as they are described in the passage?
?(A) The cash value of children rose during the nineteenth century because parents began to increase their emotional investment in the upbringing of their children.
?(B) The cash value of children rose during the nineteenth century because their expected earnings over the course of a lifetime increased greatly.
?(C) The cash value of children rose during the nineteenth century because the spread of humanitarian ideals resulted in a wholesale reappraisal of the worth of an individual
?(D) The cash value of children rose during the nineteenth century because compulsory education laws reduced the supply, and thus raised the costs, of available child labor.
?(E) The cash value of children rose during the nineteenth century because of changes in the way negligence law assessed damages in accidental- death cases.
4. The primary purpose of the passage is to
?(A) review the literature in a new academic subfield
?(B) present the central thesis of a recent book
?(C) contrast two approaches to analyzing historical change
?(D) refute a traditional explanation of a social phenomenon
?(E) encourage further work on a neglected historical topic
5. It can be inferred from the passage that which of the following statements was true of American families over the course of the nineteenth century?
?(A) The average size of families grew considerably
?(B) The percentage of families involved in industrial work declined dramatically.
?(C) Family members became more emotionally bonded to one another.
?(D) Family members spent an increasing amount of time working with each other.
?(E) Family members became more economically dependent on each other.
6. Zelizer refers to all of the following as important influences in changing the assessment of children’s worth EXCEPT changes in
?(A) the mortality rate
?(B) the nature of industry
?(C) the nature of the family
?(D) attitudes toward reform movements
?(E) attitudes toward the marketplace
7.Which of the following would be most consistent with the practices of sociological economics as these practices are described in the passage?
?(A) Arguing that most health-care professionals enter the field because they believe it to be the most socially useful of any occupation
?(B) Arguing that most college students choose majors that they believe will lead to the most highly paid jobs available to them
?(C) Arguing that most decisions about marriage and divorce are based on rational assessments of the likelihood that each partner will remain committed to the relationship
?(D) Analyzing changes in the number of people enrolled in colleges and universities as a function of changes in the economic health of these institutions?
?(E) Analyzing changes in the ages at which people get married as a function of a change in the average number of years that young people have lived away from their parents
Passage 14
Prior to 1975, union efforts to organize public-sector clerical workers, most of whom are women, were somewhat limited. The factors favoring unionization drives seem to have been either the presence of large numbers (5) of workers, as in New York City, to make it worth the effort, or the concentration of small numbers in one or two locations, such as a hospital, to make it relatively easy, Receptivity to unionization on the workers, part was also a consideration, but when there were large (10) numbers involved or the clerical workers were the only unorganized group in a jurisdiction, the multioccupational unions would often try to organize them regardless of the workers’ initial receptivity. The strategic reasoning was based, first, on the concern that politi- (15) cians and administrators might play off unionized against nonunionized workers, and, second, on the conviction that a fully unionized public work force meant power, both at the bargaining table and in the legislature. In localities where clerical workers were few (20) in number, were scattered in several workplaces, and expressed no interest in being organized, unions more often than not ignored them in the pre-1975 period.
But since the mid-1970’s, a different strategy has emerged. In 1977, 34 percent of government clerical (25) workers were represented by a labor organization, compared with 46 percent of government professionals, 44 percent of government blue-collar workers, and 41 percent of government service workers, Since then, however, the biggest increases in public-sector unioniza-(30) tion have been among clerical workers. Between 1977 and 1980, the number of unionized government workers in blue-collar and service occupations increased only about 1.5 percent, while in the white-collar occupations the increase was 20 percent and among clerical workers (35) in particular, the increase was 22 percent.
What accounts for this upsurge in unionization among clerical workers? First, more women have entered the work force in the past few years, and more of them plan to remain working until retirement age. Conse- (40) quently, they are probably more concerned than their predecessors were about job security and economic benefits. Also, the women’s movement has succeeded in legit- imizing the economic and political activism of women on their own behalf, thereby producing a more positive atti-(45) tude toward unions. The absence of any comparable increase in unionization among private-sector clerical workers, however, identifies the primary catalyst-the structural change in the multioccupational public-sector unions themselves. Over the past twenty years, the occu- (50) pational distribution in these unions has been steadily shifting from predominantly blue-collar to predominantly white-collar. Because there are far more women in white-collar jobs, an increase in the proportion of female members has accompanied the occupational shift (55) and has altered union policy-making in favor of organizing women and addressing women’s issues.
1. According to the passage, the public-sector workers who were most likely to belong to unions in 1977 were
?(A) professionals
?(B) managers
?(C) clerical workers
?(D) service workers
?(E) blue-collar workers
2. The author cites union efforts to achieve a fully unionized work force (line 13-19) in order to account for why
?(A) politicians might try to oppose public-sector union organizing
?(B) public-sector unions have recently focused on organizing women
?(C) early organizing efforts often focused on areas where there were large numbers of workers
?(D) union efforts with regard to public-sector clerical workers increased dramatically after 1975
?(E) unions sometimes tried to organize workers regardless of the workers’ initial interest in unionization
3. The author’s claim that, since the mid-1970’s, a new strategy has emerged in the unionization of public sector clerical workers (line 23 ) would be strengthened if the author
?(A) described more fully the attitudes of clerical workers toward labor unions
?(B) compared the organizing strategies employed by private-sector unions with those of public-sector unions
?(C) explained why politicians and administrators sometimes oppose unionization of clerical workers
?(D) indicated that the number of unionized public-sector clerical workers was increasing even before the mid- 1970’s
?(E) showed that the factors that favored unionization drives among these workers prior to 1975 have decreased in importance
4. According to the passage, in the period prior to 1975, each of the following considerations helped determine whether a union would attempt to organize a certain group of clerical workers EXCEPT
?(A) the number of clerical workers in that group?
?(B) the number of women among the clerical workers in that group
?(C) whether the clerical workers in that area were concentrated in one workplace or scattered over several workplaces?”
?(D) the degree to which the clerical workers in that group were interested in unionization
?(E) whether all the other workers in the same jurisdiction as that group of clerical workers were unionized
5. The author states that which of the following is a consequence of the women’s movement of recent years???
?(A) An increase in the number of women entering the work force
?(B) A structural change in multioccupational public sector unions
?(C) A more positive attitude on the part of women toward unions
?(D) An increase in the proportion of clerical workers that are women
?(E) An increase in the number of women in administrative positions
6. The main concern of the passage is to
?(A) advocate particular strategies for future efforts to organize certain workers into labor unions
?(B) explain differences in the unionized proportions of various groups of public-sector workers
?(C) evaluate the effectiveness of certain kinds of labor unions that represent public-sector workers
?(D) analyzed and explain an increase in unionization among a certain category of workers
?(E) describe and distinguish strategies appropriate to organizing different categories of workers
7. The author implies that if the increase in the number of women in the work force and the impact of the women’s movement were the main causes of the rise in unionization of public-sector clerical workers, then
?(A) more women would
hold administrative positions in unions
?(B) more women who hold political offices would have positive attitudes toward labor unions
?(C) there would be an equivalent rise in unionization of private-sector clerical workers
?(D) unions would have shown more interest than they have in organizing women
?(E) the increase in the number of unionized public sector clerical workers would have been greater than it has been
8. The author suggests that it would be disadvantageous to a union if
?(A) many workers in the locality were not unionized
?(B) the union contributed to political campaigns
?(C) the union included only public-sector workers
?(D) the union included workers from several jurisdictions
?(E) the union included members from only a few occupations
9. The author implies that, in comparison with working women today, women working in the years prior to the mid-1970’s showed a greater tendency to
?(A) prefer smaller workplaces
?(B) express a positive attitude toward labor unions
?(C) maximize job security and economic benefits
?(D) side with administrators in labor disputes
?(E) quit working prior of retirement age
Passage 15
Milankovitch proposed in the early twentieth century that the ice ages were caused by variations in the Earth’s orbit around the Sun. For sometime this theory was considered untestable, largely because there was no suffi- (5) ciently precise chronology of the ice ages with which the orbital variations could be matched.
To establish such a chronology it is necessary to determine the relative amounts of land ice that existed at various times in the Earth’s past. A recent discovery (10) makes such a determination possible: relative land-ice volume for a given period can be deduced from the ratio of two oxygen isotopes, 16 and 18, found in ocean sediments. Almost all the oxygen in water is oxygen 16, but a few molecules out of every thousand incorporate the (15) heavier isotope 18. When an ice age begins, the continental ice sheets grow, steadily reducing the amount of water evaporated from the ocean that will eventually return to it. Because heavier isotopes tend to be left behid when water evaporates from the ocean surfaces, (20) the remaining ocean water becomes progressively enriched in oxygen 18. The degree of enrichment can be determined by analyzing ocean sediments of the period, because these sediments are composed of calcium carbonate shells of marine organisms, shells that were (25) constructed with oxygen atoms drawn from the surrounding ocean. The higher the ratio of oxygen 18 to oxygen 16 in a sedimentary specimen, the more land ice there was when the sediment was laid down.
As an indicator of shifts in the Earth’s climate, the (30) isotope record has two advantages. First, it is a global record: there is remarkably little variation in isotope ratios in sedimentary specimens taken from different continental locations. Second, it is a more continuous record than that taken from rocks on land. Because of (35) these advantages, sedimentary evidence can be dated with sufficient accuracy by radiometric methods to establish a precise chronology of the ice ages. The dated isotope record shows that the fluctuations in global ice volume over the past several hundred thousand years (40) have a pattern: an ice age occurs roughly once every 100,000 years. These data have established a strong connection between variations in the Earth’s orbit and the periodicity of the ice ages.
However, it is important to note that other factors, (45) such as volcanic particulates or variations in the amount of sunlight received by the Earth, could potentially have affected the climate. The advantage of the Milankovitch theory is that it is testable: changes in the Earth’s orbit can be calculated and dated by applying Newton’s laws (50) of gravity to progressively earlier configurations of the bodies in the solar system. Yet the lack of information about other possible factors affecting global climate does not make them unimportant.
1. In the passage, the author is primarily interested in
?(A) suggesting an alternative to an outdated research method
?(B) introducing a new research method that calls an accepted theory into question
?(C) emphasizing the instability of data gathered from the application of a new scientific method
?(D) presenting a theory and describing a new method to test that theory
?(E) initiating a debate about a widely accepted theory
2. The author of the passage would be most likely to agree with which of the following statements about the Milankovitch theory?
?(A) It is the only possible explanation for the ice ages.
?(B) It is too limited to provide a plausible explanation for the ice ages, despite recent research findings.
?(C) It cannot be tested and confirmed until further research on volcanic activity is done.
?(D) It is one plausible explanation, though not the only one, for the ice ages.
?(E) It is not a plausible explanation for the ice ages, although it has opened up promising possibilities for future research.
3. It can be inferred from the passage that the isotope record taken from ocean sediments would be less useful to researchers if which of the following were true?
?(A) It indicated that lighter isotopes of oxygen predominated at certain times.
?(B) It had far more gaps in its sequence than the record taken from rocks on land.
?(C) It indicated that climate shifts did not occur every 100,000 years.
?(D) It indicated that the ratios of oxygen 16 and oxygen 18 in ocean water were not consistent with those found in fresh water.
?(E) It stretched back for only a mil
lion years.
4. According to the passage, which of the following is true of the ratios of oxygen isotopes in ocean sediments?
?(A) They indicate that sediments found during an ice age contain more calcium carbonate than sediments formed at other times.
?(B) They are less reliable than the evidence from rocks on land in determining the volume of land ice.
?(C) They can be used to deduce the relative volume of land ice that was present when the sediment was laid down.
?(D) They are more unpredictable during an ice age than in other climatic conditions.
?(E) They can be used to determine atmospheric conditions at various times in the past.
5. It can be inferred from the passage that precipitation formed from evaporated ocean water has
?(A) the same isotopic ratio as ocean water
?(B) less oxygen 18 than does ocean water
?(C) less oxygen 18 than has the ice contained in continental ice sheets
?(D) a different isotopic composition than has precipitation formed from water on land
?(E) more oxygen 16 than has precipitation formed from fresh water
6. According to the passage, which of the following is (are) true of the ice ages?
?Ⅰ. The last ice age occurred about 25,000 years ago.
?Ⅱ. Ice ages have lasted about 10,000 years for at least the last several hundred thousand years.
?Ⅲ. Ice ages have occurred about every 100,000 years for at least the last several hundred thousand years.
?(A) Ⅰ only
?(B) Ⅱ only
?(C) Ⅲ only
?(D) Ⅰand only
?(E) Ⅰ,Ⅱ and Ⅲ
7. It can be inferred from the passage that calcium carbonate shells
?(A) are not as susceptible to deterioration as rocks
?(B) are less common in sediments formed during an ice age
?(C) are found only in areas that were once covered by land ice
?(D) contain radioactive material that can be used to determine a sediment’s isotopic composition
?(E) reflect the isotopic composition of the water at the time the shells were formed
8. The purpose of the last paragraph of the passage is to
?(A) offer a note of caution
?(B) introduce new evidence
?(C) present two recent discoveries
?(D) summarize material in the preceding paragraphs
?(E) offer two explanations for a phenomenon
9. According to the passage, one advantage of studying the isotope record of ocean sediments is that it
?(A) corresponds with the record of ice volume taken from rocks on land
?(B) shows little variation in isotope ratios when samples are taken from different continental locations
?(C) corresponds with predictions already made by climatologists and experts in other fields
?(D) confirms the record of ice volume initially established by analyzing variations in volcanic emissions
?(E) provides data that can be used to substantiate records concerning variations in the amount of sunlight received by the Earth
