MAY 2025 R&W

Question 1.

Archaeologists have identified a plethora of beads fashioned from Tritia gibbosula

shells in many Middle Stone Age (MSA) sites across western North Africa,
including El Mnasra Cave, Morocco. In a 2021 paper, El Mehdi Sehasseh et al.
attribute these artifacts' ______ to the evolution and propagation of symbolic
behavior (e.g., use of personal ornaments) in humans and the availability of T.
gibbosula during the MSA.

Which choice completes the text with the most logical and precise word or
phrase?

A. expediency C. ubiquity

B. fecundity D. heterogeneity

Question 2. The following text is from Charles Chesnutt's 1905 novel The
Colonel's Dream. Mr. French and Mr. Kirby work together.

Mr. French, the senior partner, who sat opposite Kirby, was an older man—a safe
guess would have placed him somewhere in the debatable ground between forty
and fifty; of a good height, as could be seen even from the seated figure, the
upper part of which was held erect with the unconscious ease which one
associates with military training.

As used in the text, what does the word “good” most nearly mean?

A. well-behaved C. capable

B. considerable D. reliable

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Question 3.

Svante Pääbo and other researchers studying the history of organisms have long
utilized ancient DNA—DNA recovered from ancient organic material that has
been preserved under natural conditions. However, Reyjane P. Oliveira and
colleagues' 2017 study of the evolutionary trajectory of the Malagasy grass genus
Chasechloa instead relied on historical DNA—genomic data incidentally preserved
in specimens that are housed in natural history collections—thus capitalizing on
the research potential offered by a vast but hitherto relatively underutilized
source of insight into the biological past.

Which choice best describes the function of the underlined portion in the text as a
whole?

A. It specifies potential applications of the approach that Oliveira and colleagues

used in their study.

B. It offers commentary on the significance of the approach that Oliveira and

colleagues used for their study.

C. It emphasizes the importance of Oliveira and colleagues' findings about the

DNA of flora.

D. It explains why the research methodology selected by Oliveira and colleagues is

not widely used.

Question 4.

In 2023 Nobel Prize-winning physicist Giorgio Parisi published In a Flight of

Starlings, a collection of essays on scientific subjects. Acclaimed author Sam Kean,
who uses the form of nonfiction narrative to explore scientific discoveries, is
interested in the collection less for its aesthetic merit than for its focus on "the
false starts...and mistakes that beset real scientific research every day." Kean
argues that all too often, scientists omit this “human stuff" from written accounts
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of their research and thus ultimately "fail to explain how science really gets
done."

Which choice best states the main purpose of the text?

A. It explores a subtle difference between Kean's and Parisi's respective

objections to scientific research methods.

B. It outlines an area of agreement between Parisi and Kean in how they think
about the work of science.

C. It describes Kean's view that nonfiction narrative is an effective way for Parisi
to share his accomplishments.

D. It presents Kean's claim that Parisi is too modest about his own achievements
as a scientist.

Question 5.

Text 1

In the past, music albums were created to be played back on physical formats like
records. A typical record holds only about twenty-five minutes of music on each
of its shiny black sides. This forced artists and producers to think carefully about
what music to include on an album and what to leave out. Today's artists don't
have to worry as much about fitting their music on physical formats. For this
reason, many of today's artists are making albums that are much longer than
albums from decades past.

Text 2

In today's digital age, most music is created to be streamed from online services.
These services remove the limitations of physical formats like records and CDs.

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This may be why many new albums are longer and have more songs than albums
crafted for physical formats. Unfortunately, many of these longer albums suffer
from a lack of focus.

Based on the texts, the author of Text 1 and the author of Text 2 would most
likely agree with which statement about many new albums?

A. Many new albums include more artwork than albums generally once included.

B. Many new albums sell more copies than albums generally once sold.

C. Many new albums are longer than albums generally once were.

D. Many new albums are quieter than albums generally once were.

Question 6.

Sheep and macaque monkeys can see in three dimensions (3D), which helps them
perceive distance and depth. Octopuses and squid are thought to lack 3D vision.
Many researchers once thought the same about cuttlefish, but Trevor Wardill and
his team wanted to test whether this assumption was true. The team studied how
cuttlefish wearing 3D glasses reacted to 3D images of shrimp (a favorite prey)
projected on a tank wall. Cuttlefish changed their striking position to match the
3D images, suggesting that their vision is more like that of sheep and macaque
monkeys than that of octopuses or squid.

Which choice best states the main idea of the text?

A. Cuttlefish eyes are much more complex than those of either sheep or macaque
monkeys.

B. Before completing their study, Wardill's team showed that sheep have 3D
vision, but macaque monkeys may not.

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C. Wardill's team designed 3D glasses for cuttlefish.

D. The findings of Wardill's team's study suggest that like sheep and macaque
monkeys, cuttlefish may also have 3D vision.

Question 7. The following text is from Narcíso Tondreau's 1898 poem "Yesterday
and To-Day" (translated by Agnes Blake Poor in 1918). The poem is about an old
statue of the Greek goddess Venus, which now lies on the ground in a state of
disrepair.

How long ago, by summer breezes fanned,

Here stood the newborn Venus, fresh and fair;

All palpitating from the master's hand,

The last touch of his chisel lingering there.

"And surely this shall last!" he proudly thought;

"Fixed in immortal marble is my fame!"

Just here, where human hand has surely wrought,

Some crumbling letters may have spelled his name.

In the text, what does the speaker say that the artist believed about his sculpture?

A. It would be praised for its intricate details that he carefully chiseled.

B. It would be carefully repaired when it inevitably begins to deteriorate.

C. It would bring him enduring fame by withstanding time.

D. Its beauty would be recognized as surpassing that of other images of Venus.

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Question 8.

Life Among the Paiutes is an 1882 autobiographical narrative by Sarah

Winnemucca Hopkins, a Northern Paiute author, educator, and activist. In the
work, Winnemucca directly addresses the reader to explain certain customs,
writing ______

Which quotation from Life Among the Paiutes most effectively illustrates the
claim?

A. "During the time my grandfather was away in California, where he [stayed] till
after the Mexican war, there was a girl-baby born in our family."

B. "Now, my dear reader, there is no word so endearing as the word father, and
that is why [my people] call all good people father or mother."

C. "But how can I describe the scene that followed? Some of you, dear readers,
can imagine."

D. "We would all go in company to see if the flowers we were named for were yet
in bloom, for almost all the girls are named for flowers."

Question 9.

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Esther Sanyé-Mengual, Kathrin Specht, and their team surveyed three groups of
people in Bologna, Italy—leaders of urban agriculture projects, stakeholders in
urban agriculture (e.g., food researchers and urban farming associations), and the
general public—to compare their views about the extent to which urban
agriculture contributes to 25 social or ecological services that the team identified.
The researchers used these ratings to rank the services for each group, with a
ranking of 1 indicating that a group perceives that urban agriculture benefits that
service the most. Using only the rankings shown in the table, a city planner in
Bologna who is promoting a new urban agriculture project concludes that
advertisements aimed at stakeholders should emphasize the project's benefit to
the enhancement of pollination.

Which choice best describes data in the table that support the city planner's
conclusion?

A. The enhancement of pollination was ranked higher for stakeholders than were
the other four services.

B. The prevention of soil erosion was ranked lower for stakeholders than it was
for project leaders.

C. The enhancement of pollination was ranked higher for the general public than
it was for stakeholders.

D. The enhancement of carbon sequestration was ranked higher for stakeholders

than was the enhancement of pollination.

Question 10.

Mariana Lopes Barata and Pedro Simões Coelho collected data from 324 music-
streaming service users to identify factors that influence users to opt for paid
(premium) versions of music streaming services, like Apple Music. They
hypothesized that hedonic motivation (the enjoyment that a consumer perceives

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to be associated with using a service) would be positively correlated with users'
intentions to adopt premium versions. The researchers asked participants to rate
statements such as "Using paid music streaming services is pleasant." They found
that, indeed, hedonic motivation positively influences the intention to adopt
premium streaming service versions, which suggests that ______

Which choice most logically completes the text?

A. it may be advantageous for music streaming companies to try to influence the

extent to which potential users perceive the premium version as pleasant to use.

B. participants who strongly agreed with the statement "Using paid music
streaming services is pleasant" were more likely to express loyalty to Apple Music
than to other streaming services.

C. the statement "Using paid music streaming services is pleasant" is not a reliable
measure of hedonic motivation.

D. users' intentions to pay for premium streaming services are probably

unaffected by factors other than hedonic motivation.

Question 11.

A groundbreaking visual artist of her day, ______ including artists Vasily

Kandinsky and Piet Mondrian.

Which choice completes the text so that it conforms to the conventions of

Standard English?

A. Hilma af Klint, well before many of her contemporaries, explored abstract

modes of painting,

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B. Hilma af Klint explored abstract modes of painting well before many of her
contemporaries,

C. well before many of her contemporaries, Hilma af Klint explored abstract

modes of painting,

D. the explorations of Hilma af Klint into abstract modes of painting occured well
before those of many of her contemporaries,

Question 12.

The small celestial body known as 2010 BL4 is expected to have a relatively short
lifetime in the outer solar system. Within just a few million years, 2010 BL4 is
likely to migrate into the inner solar system or be destroyed, according to ______
trajectory.

Which choice completes the text so that it conforms to the conventions of

Standard English?

A. astronomers modeling of the objects

B. astronomer's modeling of the object's

C. astronomers' modeling of the object's

D. astronomers modeling of the object's

Question 13.

Since the nineteenth century, Egyptologists have commonly divided ancient

Egyptian history into three primary ______ Old Kingdom (2700-2200 BCE), the
Middle Kingdom (2050-1800 BCE), and the New Kingdom (1550-1100 BCE). Some

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historians, however, criticize the names of these periods for revealing more about
the culture of the mainly European Egyptologists than that of ancient Egypt itself.

Which choice completes the text so that it conforms to the conventions of

Standard English?

A. periods. The C. periods: the

B. periods; the D. periods, the

Question 14.

In 2018, the Contessa Gallery in Miami, Florida, exhibited the work of Slovak
______ who aptly describes her photos as "minimalistic but also futuristic."

Which choice completes the text so that it conforms to the conventions of

Standard English?

A. photographer Mária Švarbová,

B. photographer Mária Švarbová

C. photographer, Mária Švarbová

D. photographer, Mária Švarbová,

Question 15.

One proposed boundary between Earth's atmosphere and outer space is the
Kármán line, 100 km above sea level. Based on the work of physicist Theodore
von Kármán, this line marks the theoretical height at which an aircraft no longer
remains aloft using the force of lift. ______ an aircraft sustains flight past this

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altitude primarily by its velocity, reaching a speed sufficient to maintain an orbit
but not to generate enough lift from the thin air.

Which choice completes the text with the most logical transition?

A. Regardless, C. Granted,

B. For instance, D. Instead,

Question 16.

In the Southeast Asian country of Indonesia, the percentage of the population

living in cities rose from 53.3% to 56.6% between 2015 and 2020. ______
urbanization rates climbed across Southeast Asia as a whole, rising 2.8 percentage
points in that five-year period.

Which choice completes the text with the most logical transition?

A. For example, C. In other words,

B. Eventually, D. Concurrently,

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