GRE RC Review

Dickens is so brilliant a stylist, his vision of the world so idiosyncratic and yet so telling, that one might say that his subject is his unique rendering of his subject, in an echo of Rothko's statement, "The subject of the painting is the painting"—except of course, Dickens's great subject was nothing so subjective or so exclusionary, but as much of the world as he could render. If Dickens's prose fiction has "defects"—excesses of melodrama, sentimentality, contrived plots, and manufactured happy endings—these are the defects of his era, which for all his greatness Dickens had not the rebellious spirit to resist; he was at heart a crowd-pleaser, a theatrical entertainer, with no interest in subverting the conventions of the novel as his great successors D.H. Lawrence, James Joyce, and Virginia Woolf would have; nor did he contemplate the subtle and ironic counterminings of human relations in the way of George Eliot and Thomas Hardy, who brought to the English novel an element of nuanced psychological realism not previously explored. Yet among English writers Dickens is, as he once called himself, part-jesting and part-serious, "the inimitable."

According to the passage, as a result of Dicken's disinclination to subvert the conventions of his time, his prose fiction is characterized by: (C) A. "unique rendering of his subject" B. "ironic counterminings" C. "contrived plots" D. "nuanced psychological realism" E. "world so idiosyncratic" Which of the following regarding Dickens can be inferred from the passage? (A,B) A. He was aware of the stylistic conventions of his time. B. He preferred to be exhaustive rather than selective. C. He greatly influenced James Joyce and Virginia Woolf.

People associate global warming with temperature, but the phrase is misleading—it fails to mention the relevance of water. Nearly every significant indicator of hydrological activity—rainfall, snowmelt, glacial melt—is changing at an accelerating pace (one can arbitrarily pick any point of the hydrological cycle and notice a disruption). One analysis pegged the increase in precipitation at 2 percent over the century. In water terms this sounds auspicious, promising increased supply, but the changing timing and composition of the precipitation more than neutralizes the advantage. For one thing, it is likely that more of the precipitation will fall in intense episodes, with flooding a reasonable prospect. In addition, while rainfall will increase, snowfall will decrease. Such an outcome means that in watersheds that depend on snowmelt, like the Indus, Ganges, Colorado river basins, less water will be stored as snow, and more of it will flow in the winter, when it plays no agricultural role; conversely, less of it will flow in the summer, when it is most needed. One computer model showed that on the Animas River an increase in temperature of 3.6 degrees Fahrenheit would cause runoff to rise by 85 percent from January to March, but drop by 40 percent from July to September. The rise in temperature increases the probability and intensity of spring floods and threatens dam safety, which is predicated on lower runoff projections. Dams in arid areas also may face increased sedimentation, since a 10 percent annual increase in precipitation can double the volume of sediment washed into rivers. The consequences multiply. Soil moisture will intensify at the highest northern latitudes, where precipitation will grow far more than evaporation and plant transpiration but where agriculture is nonexistent. At the same time, precipitation will drop over northern mid-latitude continents in summer months, when ample soil moisture is an agricultural necessity. Meanwhile the sea level will continue to rise as temperatures warm, accelerating saline contamination of freshwater aquifers and river deltas. The temperature will cause increased evaporation, which in turn will lead to a greater incidence of drought. Perhaps most disturbing of all, the hydrological cycle is becoming increasingly unpredictable. This means that the last century's hydrological cycle—the set of assumptions about water on which modern irrigation is based—has become unreliable. Build a dam too large, and it may not generate its designed power; build it too small, and it may collapse or flood. Release too little dam runoff in the spring and risk flood, as the snowmelt cascades downstream with unexpected volume; release too much and the water will not be available for farmers when they need it. At a time when water scarcity calls out for intensified planning, planning itself may be stymied.

Based on information in the second paragraph, which of the following can best be supported? (A) A. Precipitation across different latitudes can differ significantly. B. An increase in soil moisture can have devastating effects on agriculture. C. Increased temperatures at sea level can affect the highest altitudes. D. Saline contamination mostly results from an increase in sea levels. E. Hydrological activity at one elevation has little to no effect on hydrological activity at another elevation. According to the passage, the likelihood that "dams in arid areas also may face increased sedimentation" will most likely result from (A) A. an increase in precipitation B. a decrease in the annual snowmelt C. the rise in the average annual temperature of major rivers D. a shift in the seasonality of precipitation E. a rise in sea level The author of the passage would disagree with which of the following? (C) A. Some nations are likely to put more focus on regulating industry than allowing industry a measure of autonomy. B. Varying levels of regulation often lead to similar levels of pollution. C. There is a complete lack of transparency in the different standards used by countries. D. The United States tends to regulate only a few aspects of the overall production process. E. Analogies can aptly summarize the primary differences between the environmental practices of two countries. It can be inferred that, compared to the United States, Japan spent less on (C) A. ensuring strict standards B. minimizing pollution C. regulating firms D. research and development E. environmental cleanup

In the 1860s, the German philologist Lazarus Geiger proposed that the subdivision of color always follows the same hierarchy. The simplest color lexicons (such as the DugermDani language of New Guinea) distinguish only black/dark and white/light. The next color to be given a separate word by cultures is always centered on the red part of the visible spectrum. Then, according to Geiger, societies will adopt a word corresponding to yellow, then green, then blue. Lazarus's color hierarchy was forgotten until restated in almost the same form in 1969 by Brent Berlin, an anthropologist, and Paul Kay, a linguist, when it was hailed as a major discovery in modern linguistics. It showed a universal regularity underlying the apparently arbitrary way language is used to describe the world. Berlin and Kay's hypothesis has since fallen in and out of favor, and certainly there are exceptions to the scheme they proposed. But the fundamental color hierarchy, at least in the early stages (black/white, red, yellow/green, blue) remains generally accepted. The problem is that no one could explain why this ordering of color exists. Why, for example, does the blue of sky and sea, or the green of foliage, not occur as a word before the far less common red? There are several schools of thought about how colors get named. "Nativists," who include Berlin and Kay, argue that the way in which we attach words to concepts is innately determined by how we perceive the world. In this view our perceptual apparatus has evolved to ensure that we make "sensible"—that is, useful—choices of what to label with distinct words: we are hardwired for practical forms of language. "Empiricists," in contrast, argue that we don't need this innate programming, just the capacity to learn the conventional (but arbitrary) labels for things we can perceive. In both cases, the categories of things to name are deemed "obvious": language just labels them. But the conclusions of Loreto and colleagues fit with a third possibility: the "culturist" view, which says that shared communication is needed to help organize category formation, so that categories and language co-evolve in an interaction between biological predisposition and culture. In other words, the starting point for color terms is not some inevitably distinct block of the spectrum, but neither do we just divide up the spectrum in some arbitrary fashion, because the human eye has different sensitivity to different parts of the spectrum. Given this, we have to arrive at some consensus, not just on which label to use, but on what is being labeled.

Select the sentence that presents specific examples of why the ordering of Lazarus' color hierarchy is surprising. Why, for example, does the blue of sky and sea, or the green of foliage, not occur as a word before the far less common red? In the context in which it is used, "hailed" most nearly means? (D) A. made robust B. summoned C. introduced D. celebrated E. bandied about How does the culturist view relate to the nativist and empiricist views? (D) A. The culturist view, in providing a synthesis of the nativist and the empiricist views, fails to add anything that falls outside the scope of these two views. B. The culturist view, in discussing the limitations of language, focuses mainly on the way in which innate capacities drive the specific labels appended to colors, a feature common to both the nativist and the empiricist views. C. The culturist view is driven by the arbitrary labels people use to describe the world, and in that sense shares more in common with the empiricist than with the nativist view. D. In positing that interaction encodes certain labels, the culturist view is similar to the empiricist view, but in imposing limitations on such labeling, the culturist view is similar to the nativist view. E. The culturist view is largely unrelated to both the nativist and the empiricist views because, unlike both of those theories, it focuses exclusively on the way in which people arrive at an arbitrary label to describe the world.

Originally, scientists predicted small asteroids to be hard and rocky, as any loose surface material (called regolith) generated by impacts was expected to escape their weak gravity. Aggregate small bodies were not thought to exist, because the slightest sustained relative motion would cause them to separate. But observations and computer modeling are proving otherwise. Most asteroids larger than a kilometer are now believed to be composites of smaller pieces. Those imaged at high-resolution show evidence for copious regolith despite the weak gravity. Most of them have one or more extraordinarily large craters, some of which are wider than the mean radius of the whole body. Such colossal impacts would not just gouge out a crater—they would break any monolithic body into pieces. In short, asteroids larger than a kilometer across may look like nuggets of hard rock but are more likely to be aggregate assemblages—or even piles of loose rubble so pervasively fragmented that no solid bedrock is left. The rubble hypothesis, proposed decades ago by scientists, lacked evidence, until the planetologist Shoemaker realized that the huge craters on the asteroid Mathilde and its very low density could only make sense together: a porous body such as a rubble pile can withstand a battering much better than an integral object. It will absorb and dissipate a large fraction of the energy of an impact; the far side might hardly feel a thing. At first, the rubble hypothesis may appear conceptually troublesome. The material strength of an asteroid is nearly zero, and the gravity is so low one is tempted to neglect that too. The truth is neither strength nor gravity can be ignored. Paltry though it may be, gravity binds a rubble pile together. And anybody who builds sandcastles knows that even loose debris can cohere. Oft-ignored details of motion begin to matter: sliding friction, chemical bonding, damping of kinetic energy, etc. We are just beginning to fathom the subtle interplay of these minuscule forces. The size of an asteroid should determine which force dominates. One indication is the observed pattern of asteroidal rotation rates. Some collisions cause an asteroid to spin faster; others slow it down. If asteroids are monolithic rocks undergoing random collisions, a graph of their rotation rates should show a bell-shaped distribution with a statistical "tail" of very fast rotators. If nearly all asteroids are rubble piles, however, this tail would be missing, because any rubble pile spinning faster than once every two or three hours would fly apart. Recently, several astronomers discovered that all but five observed asteroids obey a strict rotation limit. The exceptions are all smaller than about 150 meters in diameter, with an abrupt cutoff for asteroids larger than 200 meters. The evident conclusion—that asteroids larger than 200 meters across are rubble piles—agrees with recent computer modeling of collisions. A collision can blast a large asteroid to bits, but those bits will usually be moving slower than their mutual escape velocity (the lowest velocity that a body must have in order to escape the orbit of a planet). Over several hours, gravity will reassemble all but the fastest pieces into a rubble pile.

The primary purpose of the passage is to (E) A. refute an unconventional theory regarding asteroid collisions B. express doubt regarding the validity of evidence offered up by several notable astronomers C. explain how earlier evidence used to describe an aspect of asteroids was misleading D. explore common features of an asteroid in order to provide support for a theory (we don't talk about "common features" in this article.) E. discuss how one explanation of an astronomical phenomenon is most likely correct

The digital revolution has given us, for the first time, the image in its pure form, an image without body. The image conveyed by a painting, on the other hand, is always a material entity, however unobtrusive, a particular thing made out of pigments, binders and a support. Sculpture, in turn, is often far more physically obtrusive than painting, and to the extent that it offers a multiplicity of possible viewpoints, it generates many images, but typically none of them are the image of the work. The physical impression a sculpture makes is more powerful than its imagistic content, which seems merely transitory by comparison. The digitization of culture has only made this more evident.

Which of the following best accounts for why sculpture is not amenable to digitized form? (3) 1. A multiplicity of viewpoints can be bewildering and lead to divergent interpretations. 2. Paintings and sculptures undergo a similar diminished impact when seen as an image devoid of body. 3. Sculpture primarily exerts its influence through its sheer physicality. 4. The material world deals in fleeting images, whereas art can only be appreciated by recognizing the physical products that comprise any given work of art. 5. Sculpture is even more poorly suited for a digital medium than is art that provides us with an ostensibly two-dimensional image.

Oceanologist: Recently an unprecedented number of dead dolphins washed ashore along the mid-Atlantic coast. In the blood of over half of the dolphins, marine biologists discovered a brevotoxin that had been emitted by the alga Ptychodiscus brevis, in what is known as a red tide. Additionally, polychlorinated biphenyls (PCB), a toxic industrial compound, was also found in the dolphin's blood. A reasonable conclusion, and indeed one many have drawn, is that the dolphins were simply victims of the brevotoxin. Nonetheless, brevotoxins, by themselves, are not lethal to dolphins, though they do tax the dolphins system. Furthermore, most dolphins have some accumulated brevotoxins in their blood without suffering any ill health effects. Therefore, the brevotoxins alone cannot explain the mass beaching of dead dolphins.

Which of the following, if true, does most to help explain the oceanologist's doubt that the brevotoxins were the primary cause of the dolphins washing upon shore? (B) A. Most stricken dolphins that wash upon shore, whether or not they eventually die, tend to do so in the Gulf of Mexico. B. Shortly before the dolphins washed ashore, a major oil spill not only caused algae to release brevotoxins but also released an array of deleterious industrial pollutants, including PCB. C. While PCB can cause metabolic imbalances in dolphins so that they stop eating prematurely, the dose of PCB a dolphin encounters in the wild is unlikely to pose a lethal threat to a dolphin. D. Scientists, near to the site of the beached dolphins, discovered a group of beach sea otters exhibiting similar symptoms as the dolphins. E. PCB and brevotoxins exercise different effects on an organism, with PCB causing visible lesions.

The Dvorak keyboard requires less finger movement than the ubiquitous QWERTY keyboard. As a result, Dvorak keyboard users are not only able to type more words per minute, but are also less vulnerable to both repetitive stress disorder and carpal tunnel syndrome. Nonetheless, businesses, as well as consumers, have not adopted the Dvorak keyboard. Clearly, if the Dvorak keyboard is to become more widely used, its benefits must be more widely touted.

Which of the following, if true, most threatens the author's conclusion? (D) A. The initial cost of manufacturing a Dvorak keyboard will be more expensive than that of a QWERTY keyboard. B. Many who have attempted using a Dvorak keyboard claim that learning the configuration of keys takes weeks C. Those suffering from repetitive stress injuries often attribute the injuries to multiple factors D. Businesses that have educated employees on the benefits of the Dvorak keyboard have found that employees continue to use the QWERTY keyboard E. Businesses have found that many employees who believe the QWERTY keyboard is responsible for stress-induced injuries are unaware of the Dvorak keyboard.

What little scholarship has existed on Ernest Hemingway--considering his stature--has focused on trying to unmask the man behind the bravura. Ultimately, most of these works have done little more than to show that Hemingway the myth and Hemingway the man were not too dissimilar (Hemingway lived to hunt big game so should we be surprised at his virility, not to mention that of many of the author's--chiefly male--protagonists?). In the last few years, several biographies have reversed this trend, focusing on Hemingway near the end of his life: isolated and paranoid, the author imagined the government was chasing him (he was not completely wrong on this account). Ironically, the hunter had become the hunted, and in that sense, these latest biographers have provided--perhaps unwittingly--the most human portrait of the writer yet.

With which of the following would the author of the passage agree? (C) A. The prevalence of scholarship on Hemingway is commensurate with his renown as a writer. B. The latest Hemingway biographies consciously intended to show Hemingway's vulnerabilities. C. Until recently, Hemingway biographies had shown a similar trend.