Passage 31
The number of women directors appointed to corporate boards in the United States has increased dramatically, but the ratio of female to male directors remains low. Although pressure to recruit women directors,(5) unlike that to employ women in the general work force,does not derive from legislation, it is nevertheless real. Although small companies were the first to have women directors, large corporations currently have a higher percentage of women on their boards. When the(10) chairs of these large corporations began recruiting women to serve on boards, they initially sought women who were chief executive officers (CEO’s)oflarge corporations. However, such women CEO’s are still rare. In addition, the ideal of six CEO’s (female or male ) serving(15)on the board of each of the largest corporations is realizable only if every CEO serves on six boards. This raises the specter of director overcommitment and the resultant dilution of contribution. Consequently, the chairs next sought women in business who had the equivalent of(20)CEO experience. However, since it is only recently that large numbers of women have begun to rise in management, the chairs began to recruit women of high achievement outside the business world. Many such women are well known for their contributions in government,(25)education, and the nonprofit sector. The fact that thewomen from these sectors who were appointed were often acquaintances of the boards’ chairs seems quite reasonable: chairs have always considered it important for directors to interact comfortably in the boardroom.(30)
Although many successful women from outside the business world are unknown to corporate leaders, these women are particularly qualified to serve on boards because of the changing nature of corporations. Today a company’s ability to be responsive to the concerns of the 35)community and the environment can influence that company’s growth and survival. Women are uniquely positioned to be responsive to some of these concerns.Although conditions have changed, it should be remembered that most directors of both sexes are over fifty(40)years old. Women of that generation were often encouraged to direct their attention toward efforts to improve the community. This fact is reflected in the career development of most of the outstandingly successful women of the generation now in their fifties, who currently serve(45) on corporate boards: 25 percent are in education and22 percent are in government, law, and the nonprofit sector.
One organization of women directors is helping business become more responsive to the changing needs of(50)society by raising the level of corporate awareness about social issues, such as problems with the economy, government regulation, the aging population, and the environment. This organization also serves as a resource center of information on accomplished women who are(55) otential candidates for corporate boards.
1. The author of the passage would be most likely to a
gree with which of the following statements about achievement of the “ideal” mentioned in line 14?
(A) It has only recently become a possibility.
(B) It would be easier to meet if more CEO’s were women
(C) It is very close to being a reality for most corporate boards.
(D) It might affect the quality of directors’ service to corporations.
(E) It would be more realizable if CEO’s had a more extensive range of business experience.
2. According to the passage, the pressure to appoint women to corporate boards differs from the pressure to employ women in the work force in which of the following ways?
(A) Corporate boards are under less pressure because they have such a small number of openings.
(B) Corporate boards have received less pressure from stock
holders, consumers, and workers within companies to include women on their boards.
(C) Corporate boards have received less pressure from the media and the public to include women on their boards.
(D) Corporations have only recently been pressured to include women on their boards.
(E) Corporations are not subject to statutory penalty for failing to include women on their boards.
3. All of the following are examples of issues that the organization described in the last paragraph would be likely to advise corporations on EXCEPT
(A) long-term inflation
(B) health and safety regulations
(C) retirement and pension programs
(D) the energy shortage
(E) how to develop new markets
4. It can be inferred from the passage that, when seeking to appoint new members to a corporation’s board, the chair traditionally looked for candidates who
(A) had legal and governmental experience
(B) had experience dealing with community affairs
(C) could work easily with other members of the board
(D) were already involved in establishing policy for that corporation
(E) had influential connections outside the business world
5. According to the passage, which of the following is true about women outside the business world who are currently serving on corporate boards?
(A) Most do not serve on more than one board.
(B) A large percentage will eventually work on the staff of corporations.
(C) Most were already known to the chairs of the board to which they were appointed.
(D) A larger percentage are from government and law than are from the nonprofit sector.
(E) Most are less than fifty years old.
6. The passage suggests that corporations of the past differ from modern corporations in which of the following ways?
(A) Corporations had greater input on government policies affecting the business community.
(B) Corporations were less responsive to the financial needs of their employees.
(C) The ability of a corporation to keep up with changing markets was not a crucial factor in its success.
(D) A corporation’s effectiveness in coping with community needs was less likely to affect its growth and prosperity.
(E) Corporations were subject to more stringent government regulations.
7. Which of the following best describes the organization of the passage?
(A) A problem is described, and then reasons why various proposed solutions succeeded or failed are discussed.
(B) A problem is described, and then an advantage of resolving it is offered.
(C) A problem is described, and then reasons for its continuing existence are summarized.
(D) The historical origins of a problem are described, and then various measures that have successfully resolved it are discussed.
(E) The causes of a problem are described, and then its effects are discussed.
8. It can be inferred from the passage that factors making women uniquely valuable members of modern corporate boards would include which of the following?
Ⅰ. The nature of modern corporations
Ⅱ. The increased number of women CEO’s
Ⅲ. The careers pursued by women currently available to serve on corporate boards
(A) Ⅰonly
(B) Ⅱonly
(C) Ⅲ only
(D) Ⅰand Ⅲ only
(E) Ⅰ,Ⅱ, and Ⅲ
Passage 32
Increasingly, historians are blaming diseases imported from the Old World for the staggering disparity between the indigenous population of America in 1492—new estimates of which soar as high as 100 mil
lion, or approxi-(5) mately one-sixth of the human race at that time—and the few mil
lion full-blooded Native Americans alive at the end of the nineteenth century. There is no doubt that chronic disease was an important factor in the precipitous decline, and it is highly probable that the greatest(10) killer was epidemic disease, especially as manifested in virgin-soil epidemics.
Virgin-soil epidemics are those in which the populations at risk have had no previous contact with the diseases that strike them and are therefore immunologi-(15) cally almost defenseless. That virgin-soil epidemics were important in American history is strongly indicated by evidence that a number of dangerous maladies—smallpox, measles, malaria, yellow fever, and undoubtedly several more—were unknown in the pre-Columbian(20)New World. The effects of their sudden introduction are demonstrated in the early chronicles of America,which contain reports of horrendous epidemics and steeppopulation declines, confirmed in many cases by recent quantitative analyses of Spanish tribute records and(25) other sources. The evidence provided by the documents of British and French colonies is not as definitive because the conquerors of those areas did not establish permanent settlements and begin to keep continuous records until the seventeenth century, by which time the(30)worst epidemics had probably already taken place.
Furthermore, the British tended to drive the native populations away, rather than enslaving them as the Spaniards did, so that the epidemics of British America occurred beyond the range of colonists’ direct Even so, the surviving records of North America do contain references to deadly epidemics among the indigenous population. In 1616-1619 an epidemic, possibly of bubonic or pneumonic plague, swept coastal New(40)England, killing as many as nine out of ten. During the 1630’s smallpox, the disease most fatal to the Native American people, eliminated half the population of the Huron and Iroquois confederations. In the 1820’s fever devastated the people of the Columbia River area,(45) killing eight out of ten of them.Unfortunately, the documentation of these and other epidemics is slight and frequently unreliable, and it is ecessary to supplement what little we do know with evidence from recent epidemics among Native Ameri-(50) cans. For example, in 1952 an outbreak of measles among the Native American inhabitants of Ungava Bay.
Quebec, affected 99 percent of the population and killed 7 percent, even though some had the benefit of modern medicine. Cases such as this demonstrate that even (55) diseases that are not normally fatal can have devastating consequences when they strike an immunologically defenseless community.
1. The primary purpose of the passage is to
(A) refute a common misconception
(B) provide support for a hypothesis
(C) analyze an argument
(D) suggest a solution to a dilemma
(E) reconcile opposing viewpoints
2. According to the passage, virgin-soil epidemics can be distinguished from other catastrophic outbreaks of disease in that virgin-soil epidemic
(A) recur more frequently than other chronic diseases
(B) affect a minimum of one-half of a given population
(C) involve populations with no prior exposure to a disease
(D) usually involve a number of interacting diseases
(E) are less responsive to medical treatment than are other diseases
3. According to the passage, the British colonists wereunlike the Spanish colonists in that the British colonists
(A) collected tribute from the native population
(B) kept records from a very early date
(C) drove Native Americans off the land
(D) were unable to provide medical care against epidemic disease
(E) enslaved the native populations in America
4. Which of the following can be inferred from the passage concerning Spanish tribute records?
(A) They mention only epidemics of smallpox.
(B) They were instituted in 1492.
(C) They were being kept prior to the seventeenth century.
(D) They provide quantitative and qualitative evidence about Native American populations.
(E) They prove that certain diseases were unknown in the pre-Columbian New World.
5. The author implies which of the following about measles?
(A) It is not usually a fatal disease.
(B) It ceased to be a problem by the seventeenth century.
(C) It is the disease most commonly involved in virgin soil epidemics.
(D) It was not a significant problem in Spanish colonies.
(E) It affects only those who are immunologic ally defenseless against it.
6. Which of the following can be inferred from the passage about the Native American inhabitants of Ungava Bay?
(A) They were almost all killed by the 1952 epidemic.
(B) They were immunologic ally defenseless against measles.
(C) They were the last native people to be struck by a virgin- soil epidemic.
(D) They did not come into frequent contact with white Americans until the twentieth century.
(E) They had been inoculated against measles.
7. The author mentions the 1952 measles outbreak most probably in order to
(A) demonstrate the impact of modern medicine on epidemic disease
(B) corroborate the documentary evidence of epidemic disease in colonial America
(C) refute allegations of unreliability made against the historical record of colonial America
(D) advocate new research into the continuing problem of epidemic disease
(E) challenge assumptions about how the statistical evidence of epidemics should be interpreted
8. Which of the following, if newly discovered, would most seriously weaken the author’s argument concerning the importance of virgin-soil epidemics in the depopulation of Native Americans?
(A) Evidence setting the pre-Columbian population of the New World at only 80 million
(B) Spanish tribute records showing periodic population fluctuations
(C) Documents detailing sophisticated Native American medical procedures
(D) Fossils indicating Native American cortact with smallpox prior to 1492
(E) Remains of French settlements dating back to the sixteenth century
Passage 33
Until recently most astronomers believed that the space between the galaxies in our universe was a near perfect vacuum. This orthodox view of the universe is now being challenged by astronomers who believe that a(5)heavy “rain” of gas is falling into many galaxies from the supposedly empty space around them. The gas apparently condenses into a collection of small stars, each a little larger than the planet Jupiter. These stars vastly outnumber the other stars in a given galaxy. The(10) amount of “intergalactic rainfall” into some of these galaxies has been enough to double their mass in the time since they formed. Scientists have begun to suspect that this intergalactic gas is probably a mixture of gases left over from the “big bang” when the galaxies were(15) formed and gas was forced out of galaxies by supernova explosions.
It is well known that when gas is cooled at a constant pressure its volume decreases. Thus, the physicist Fabian reasoned that as intergalactic gas cools, the cooler gas(20)shrinks inward toward the center of the galaxy. Meanwhile its place is taken by hotter intergalactic gas from farther out on the edge of the galaxy, which cools as it is compressed and flows into the galaxy. The net result is a continuous flow of gas, starting as hot gases in inter-(25) galactic space and ending as a drizzle of cool gas called a“cooling flow,” falling into the central galaxy.
A fairly heretical idea in the 1970’s, the cooling-flow theory gained support when Fabian observed a cluster of galaxies in the constellation Perseus and found the(30) central galaxy, NGC 1275, to be a strange-looking object with irregular, thin strands of gas radiating from it.
According to previous speculation, these strands were gases that had been blown out by an explosion in the galaxy. Fabian, however, disagreed. Because the strands(35) of gas radiating from NGC 1275 are visible in optical photographs, Fabian suggested that such strands consisted not of gas blown out of the galaxy but of cooling flows of gas streaming inward. He noted that the wavelengths of the radiation emitted by a gas would changes as the(40) gas cooled, so that as the gas flowed into the galaxy and became cooler, it would emit not x-rays, but visible light, like that which was captured in the photographs. Fabian’s hypothesis was supported by Canizares’ determination in1982 that most of the gas in the Perseus cluster was at a(45) temperature of 80 million degrees Kelvin, whereas the gas immediately surrounding NGC 1275 (the subject of the photographs) was at one-tenth this temperature.
1. The primary purpose of the passage is to
(A) illustrate a hypothesis about the origin of galaxies
(B) provide evidence to dispute an accepted theory about the evolution of galaxies
(C) summarize the state of and prospects for research in intergalactic astronomy
(D) report new data on the origins of intergalactic gas
(E) reconcile opposing views on the formation of intergalactic gas
2. The author uses the phrase “orthodox view of the universe” (line 3) to refer to the belief that
(A) the space between the galaxies is devoid of matter
(B) the space between galaxies is occupied by stars that cannot be detected by optical photographs
(C) galaxies have decreased in mass by half since their formation
(D) galaxies contain stars, each the size of Jupiter, which form clusters
(E) galaxies are being penetrated by gas forced out of other galaxies by supernova explosions.
3. It can be inferred from the passage that, if Fabian is correct, gas in the peripheral regions of a galaxy cluster
(A) streams outward into intergalactic space
(B) is hotter than gas in the central regions of the galaxy
(C) is composed primarily of gas left over from the big bang
(D) results in the creation of unusually large stars
(E) expands to increase the size of the galaxy
4. The author of the passage probably mentions Canizares’ determination in order to
(A) clarify an ambiguity in Fabian’s research findings
(B) illustrate a generalization about the temperature of gas in a galaxy cluster
(C) introduce a new argument in support of the orthodox view of galaxies
(D) provide support for Fabian’s assertions about the Perseus galaxies
(E) provide an alternate point of view concerning the movement of gas within a galaxy cluster
5. According to the passage, Fabian believes that gas flowing into a central galaxy has which of the following characteristics?
(A) It is one-tenth hotter than it was in the outer regions of the galaxy cluster.
(B) It emits radiation with wavelengths that change as the gas moves toward the center of the galaxy.
(C) The total amount of radiation emitted diminishes as the gas cools.
(D) It loses 90 percent of its energy as it moves to the center of the galaxy.
(E) It condenses at a rate much slower than the rate of decrease in temperature as the gas flows inward.
6. According to the passage, Fabian’s theory makes use of which of the following principles?
(A) Gas emanating from an explosion will be hotter the more distant it is from the origin.
(B) The wavelength of radiation emitted by a gas as it cools remains constant.
(C) If pressure remains constant, the volume of a gas will decrease as it is cooled.
(D) The volume of a gas will increase as the pressure increases.
(E) As gas cools, its density decreases.
7. It can be inferred from the passage that which of the following is true of Fabian’s theory?
(A) It did not receive approval until Canizares’ work was published.
(B) It was not widely accepted in the 1970’s.
(C) It did not receive support initially because technology was not available to confirm its tenets.
(D) It supports earlier speculation that intergalactic gas was largely the result of explosions outside the galaxy.
(E) It was widely challenged until x-ray evidence of gas temperatures in NGC 1275 had been presented.
Passage 34
Kazuko Nakane’s history of the early Japanese immigrants to central California’s PajaroValley focuses on the development of farming communities there from1890 to 1940. The Issei (first-generation immigrants)(5) were brought into the PajaroValley to raise sugar beets.
Like Issei laborers in American cities, Japanese men in rural areas sought employment via the “boss” system.The system comprised three elements: immigrant wage laborers; Issei boardinghouses where laborers stayed;(10) and labor contractors, who gathered workers for a particular job and then negotiated a contract between workers and employer. This same system was originally utilized by the Chinese laborers who had preceded the Japanese. A related institution was the “labor club,”(15)which provided job information and negotiated employment contracts and other legal matters, such as the rental of land, for Issei who chose to belong and paid an annual fee to the cooperative for membership.
When the local sugar beet industry collapsed in 1902,(20) the Issei began to lease land from the valley’s strawberry farmers. The Japanese provided the labor and the crop was divided between laborers and landowners. The Issei began to operate farms, they began to marry and start families, forming an established Japanese American(30) community. Unfortunately, the Issei’s efforts to attain agricultural independence were hampered by government restrictions, such as the Alien Land Law of 1913.But immigrants could circumvent such exclusionary laws by leasing or purchasing land in their American-born(35) children’s names.
Nakane’s case study of one rural Japanese American community provides valuable information about the lives and experiences of the Isseil. It is, however, too particularistic. This limitation derives from Nakane’s(40)methodology—that of oral history—which cannot substitute for a broader theoretical or comparative perspective. Furture research might well consider two issues raised by her study: were the Issei of the PajaroValley similar to or different from Issei in urban settings,(45) and what variations existed between rural Japanese American communities?
1. The primary purpose of the passage is to
(A) defend a controversial hypothesis presented in a history of early Japanese immigrants to Califronia(B) dismiss a history of an early Japanese settlement in California as narrow and ill constructed
(C) summarize and critique a history of an early Japanese settlement in California
(D) compare a history of one Japanese American community with studies of Japanese settlements throughout California
(E) examine the differences between Japanese and Chinese immigrants to central California in the 1890’s
2. Which of the following best describes a “labor club,” as defined in the passage?
(A) An organization to which Issei were compelled to belong if they sought employment in the PajaroValley
(B) An association whose members included labor contractors and landowning “bosses”
(C) A type of farming corporation set up by Issei who had resided in the PajaroValley for some time
(D) A cooperative association whose members were dues-paying Japanese laborers
(E) A social organization to which Japanese laborers and their families belonged
3. Based on information in the passage, which of the following statements concerning the Alien Land Law of 1913 is most accurate?
(A) It excluded American-born citizens of Japanese ancestry from landownership.
(B) It sought to restrict the number of foreign immigrants to California.
(C) It successfully prevented Issei from ever purchasing farmland.
(D) It was applicable to first-generation immigrants but not to their American-born children.
(E) It was passed under pressure from the PajaroValley’s strawberry farmers.
4. Several Issei families join together to purchase a strawberry field and the necessary farming equipment. Such a situation best exemplifies which of the following, as it is described in the passage?
(A) A typical sharecropping agreement
(B) A farming corporation
(C) A “labor club”
(D) The “boss” system
(E) Circumvention of the AlienLand Law
5. The passage suggests that which of the following was an indirect consequence of the collapse of the sugar beet industry in the PajaroValley?
(A) The Issei formed a permanent, family-based community.
(B) Boardinghouses were built to accommodate the Issei.
(C) The Issei began to lease land in their children’s names.
(D) The Issei adopted a labor contract system similar to that used by Chinese immigrants.
(E) The Issei suffered a massive dislocation caused by unemployment.
6. The author of the passage would most likely agree that which of the following, if it had been included in Nakane’s study, would best remedy the particularistic nature of that study?
(A) A statistical table comparing per capita income of Issei wage laborers and sharecroppers in the PajaroValley
(B) A statistical table showing per capita income of Issei in the PajaroValley from 1890 to 1940
(C) A statistical table showing rates of farm ownership by Japanese Americans in four central California counties from 1890 to 1940
(D) A discussion of original company documents dealing with the PajaroValley sugar beet industry at the turn of the century
(E) Transcripts of interviews conducted with members of the Pajaro Valley Japanese American community who were born in the 1920’s and 1930’s.
7. It can be inferred from the passage that, when the Issei began to lease land from the Valley’s strawberry farmers, the Issei most probably did which of the following?
(A) They used profits made from selling the strawberry crop to hire other Issei.
(B) They negotiated such agricultural contracts using the “boss” system.
(C) They paid for the use of the land with a share of the strawberry crop.
(D) They earned higher wages than when they raised sugar beets.
(E) They violated the Alien Land Law.
Passage 35
It can be argued that much consumer dissatisfaction with marketing strategies arises from an inability to aim advertising at only the likely buyers of a given product. There are three groups of consumers who are affected (5) by the marketing process. First, there is the market segment—people who need the commodity in question. Second, there is the program target—people in the market segment with the “best fit” characteristics for a specific product. Lots of people may need trousers, but(10) only a few qualify as likely buyers of very expensive designer trousers. Finally, there is the program audience―all people who are actually exposed to the marketing program without regard to whether they need or want the product.(15)
These three groups are rarely identical. An exception occurs occasionally in cases where customers for a particular industrial product may be few and easily identifiable. Such customers, all sharing a particular need, are likely to form a meaningful target, for example, all(20) companies with a particular application of the product in question, such as high-speed fillers of bottles at breweries. In such circumstances, direct selling (marketing that reaches only the program target) is likely to be economically justified, and highly specialized trade(25)media exist to expose members of the program target and only members of the program target—to the marketing program.
Most consumer-goods markets are significantly different. Typically, there are many rather than few(30) potential customers. Each represents a relatively small percentage of potential sales. Rarely do members of a particular market segment group themselves neatly into a meaningful program target. There are substantial differences among consumers with similar demographic(35)characteristics. Even with all the past decade’s advances in information technology, direct selling of consumer goods is rare, and mass marketing—a marketing approach that aims at a wide audience—remains the only economically feasible mode. Unfortunately, there(40) are few media that allow the marketer to direct a marketing program exclusively to the program target. Inevitably, people get exposed to a great deal of marketing for products in which they have no interest and so they become annoyed.
1. The passage suggests which of the following about highly specialized trade media?
(A) They should be used only when direct selling is not economically feasible.
(B) They can be used to exclude from the program audience people who are not part of the program target.
(C) They are used only for very expensive products.
(D) They are rarely used in the implementation of marketing programs for industrial products.
(E) They are used only when direct selling has not reached the appropriate market segment.
2. According to the passage, most consumer-goods markets share which of the following characteristics?
Ⅰ. Customers who differ significantly from each other
Ⅱ. Large numbers of potential customers
Ⅲ. Customers who each represent a small percentage of potential sales
(A) Ⅰ only
(B) Ⅱ only
(C) Ⅰ and Ⅱ only
(D) Ⅱ and Ⅲ only
(E) Ⅰ,Ⅱ, and Ⅲ
3. The passage suggests which of the following about direct selling?
(A) It is used in the marketing of most industrial products.
(B) It is often used in cases where there is a large program target.
(C) It is not economically feasible for most marketing programs.
(D) It is used only for products for which there are many potential customers.
(E) It is less successful at directing a marketing program to the target audience than are other marketing approaches.
4. The author mentions “trousers” (lines 9 and 11) most likely in order to
(A) make a comparison between the program target and the program audience
(B) emphasize the similarities between the market segment and the program target
(C) provide an example of the way three groups of consumers are affected by a marketing program
(D) clarify the distinction between the market segment and the program target
(E) introduce the concept of the program audience
5. Which of the following best exemplifies the situation described in the last two sentences of the passage?
(A) A product suitable for women age 21-30 is marketed at meetings attended only by potential customers.
(B) A company develops a new product and must develop an advertising campaign to create a market for it.
(C) An idea for a specialized product remains unexplored because media exposure of the product to its few potential customers would be too expensive.
(D) A new product is developed and marketers collect demographic data on potential consumers before developing a specific advertising campaign.
(E) A product suitable for men age 60 and over is advertised in a magazine read by adults of all ages.
6. The passage suggests that which of the following is true about the marketing of industrial products like those discussed in the third paragraph?
(A) The market segment and program target are identical.
(B) Mass marketing is the only feasible way of advertising such products.
(C) The marketing program cannot be directed specifically to the program target.
(D) More customers would be needed to justify the expense of direct selling.
(E) The program audience would necessarily be made up of potential customers, regardless of the marketing approach that was used.
7. The passage supports which of the following statements about demographic characteristics and marketing?
(A) Demographic research is of no use in determining how successful a product will be with a particular group of consumers.
(B) A program audience is usually composed of people with similar demographic characteristics.
(C) Psychological factors are more important than demographic factors in defining a market segments.
(D) Consumers with similar demographic characteristics do not necessarily form a meaningful program target.
(E) Collecting demographic data is the first step that marketers take in designing a marketing program.
8. It can be inferred from the passage that which of the following is true for most consumer-goods markets?
(A) The program audience is smaller than the market segment.
(B) The program audience and the market segment are usually identical.
(C) The market segment and the program target are usually identical.
(D) The program target is larger than the market segment.
(E) The program target and the program audience are not usually identical.
