SECTION 3 Time 25 minutes 24 Questions

2020 PT 6 | Reading newspapers or watching news broadcasts on television. Passage 2 A reporter I know left the business recently. His peers considered him a good reporter and writer. He left because he was tired of cut-down stories, tired of trash making the front page while stories more important to the community were killed or kicked inside, tired of the bottom line focus of editors and publishers. These are reasons enough to be embarrassed by our profession, but lets not give in just yet. Theres still great journalism produced every day. Lets argue that solid writing and reporting about issues that matter will find an audience. The primary purpose of Passage 1 is to (A) (B) (C) (D) (E) 7. convey Americans view of the news media advocate the reform of television news debate the decline in newspaper readership discuss several different types of media trace the history of journalism in America

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Working with small children had a ----- effect on Amy: she simply felt better when she was with them. 15 (A) (B) (C) (D) (E) therapeutic dignified recalcitrant sullen metaphorical

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While animals commonly eat plants, this ---- is sometimes ----: Venus flytraps, for example, capture insects, and large pitcher plants are capable of devouring small birds and rodents. (A) (B) (C) (D) (E) axiom .. affirmed paradigm .. reversed hierarchy .. perpetuated fabrication .. rectified abnormality .. inverted

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The primary purpose of Passage 2 is to (A) bemoan the demise of responsible journalism (B) praise the efforts of a particular journalist (C) cite reasons why journalists seek promotion to editorial positions (D) counter negative claims about journalism with illustrations of good writing (E) encourage colleagues to resist the decline in journalistic standards

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The weather was so ----- that everyone complained of the oppressive heat and humidity. (A) arid (B) sultry (C) fetid (D) stormy (E) temperate

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Maxine Hong Kingstons The Woman Warrior ----- stories of women who are triumphant and stories of those who are victimized, placing contrasting portraits side by side. (A) (B) (C) (D) (E) withholds supersedes complements juxtaposes interrupts 8.

Compared to the tone of Passage 2, the tone of Passage 1 is less (A) hopeful (B) irate (C) amused (D) discouraged (E) resigned

9. 5. Although the clattering noise from the machinery did not ------, the workers eventually became ----- to it, hardly noticing it. (A) (B) (C) (D) (E) reverberate .. accustomed persist .. drawn fade .. exposed cease .. hostile abate .. inured

Which best describes the relationship between the two passages? (A) Passage 2 fully supports a profession that is criticized in Passage 1. (B) Passage 2 denounces a group that is objectively analyzed in Passage 1. (C) Passage 2 provides a professional perspective on the general situation discussed in Passage 1. (D) Passage 2 acknowledges the shortcomings of a profession, whereas Passage 1 downplays them. (E) Passage 2 uncovers the humor in a situation, whereas Passage 1 is completely serious.

Questions 6-9 are based on the following passages.

Passage 1
Questions 10-15 are based on the following passages.

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Americans have never been truly fond of their press. Lately, their disdain for the media establishment has reached new levels. They believe that the news media have become too arrogant, cynical, scandal-minded, and destructive. Public hostility shows up in opinion polls, through comments on talk shows, and in waning support for news organizations in their showdowns with government officials. The most important sign of public unhappiness may be a quiet consumers boycott of the press. Year by year, a smaller proportion of Americans goes to the trouble of reading

In this passage, a nineteenth-century pilot of Mississippi steamboats reflects on his experiences. When I mastered the language of this water, and came to know every trifling feature that bordered the great river as familiarly as I knew the letters of the alphabet, I made a valuable acquisition. But I lost something too. I lost something which could never be restored to me while I lived. All the grace, the beauty, the poetry, had gone out of the majestic

(B) (C) (D) (E)

2020 PT 6 | Reading They suggest the authors unique situation. They qualify a point made earlier in the passage. They acknowledge an alternative point of view. They provide an example of a particular mindset.

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river! I still recall a wonderful sunset which I witnessed when steamboating was new to me. A broad expanse of the river was turned to blood; in the middle distance the red hue brightened into gold, through which a solitary log came floating black and conspicuous; a slanting mark lay sparkling upon the water, and high above the forest wall a clean-stemmed dead tree waved a single leafy bough that glowed in the unobstructed splendor flowing from the Sun. There were graceful curves, reflected images, soft distances; and over the whole scene the dissolving lights drifted steadily, enriching it every passing moment with new marvels of coloring. I stood like one bewitched. I drank it in, in a speechless rapture. The world was new to me, and I had never seen anything like this at home. But as I have said, a day came when I began to cease from noting the glories and the charms which the Moon and the Sun and the twilight wrought upon the rivers face; another day came when I ceased altogether to note them. Then, if that sunset scene had been repeated, I would have looked upon it without rapture, and would have commented upon it, inwardly, after this fashion: This sun means that we will have wind tomorrow; that floating log means that the river is rising, small thanks to it; that slanting mark on the water refers to a bluff reef which is going to kill somebodys steamboat one of these nights, if it keeps on stretching out like that; that tall dead tree, with a single living branch, is not going to last long, and then how is a body to get through this blind place at night without the friendly old landmark? No, the romance and beauty were all gone from the river. All the value its features had for me now was the amount of usefulness they could furnish toward compassing the safe piloting of a steamboat. Since those days, I have pitied doctors from my heart. What does the lovely flush in a beautiful cheek mean to doctors but a break that ripples above some deadly disease? Are not all visible charms sown thick with what are to them the signs and symbols of hidden decay? Do they ever see beauty at all, or dont they simply view it professionally, and comment upon the unwholesome condition all to themselves? And dont they sometimes wonder whether they have gained most or lost most by learning their trade?

13. In line 40, break most nearly means (A) (B) (C) (D) (E) an escape from confinement a planned interruption a telling irregularity a favorable situation an open rupture

14. Which statement best summarizes the authors view of professional expertise? (A) (B) (C) (D) (E) It creates opportunities for growth. It must be a goal for all workers. It is impossible to define precisely. It can make a person too analytical. It is extremely difficult to attain.

15. What does the question asked in the last sentence of the passage do (lines 45-46)? (A) It laments the irreversible damage done to some pristine landscapes. (B) It suggests that there can be unintended consequences to an increase in knowledge. (C) It reminds the reader that sorrow is sometimes inevitable. (D) It implies that the author regrets having become a writer. (E) It hints that certain benefits are shared by all who learn a trade.
Questions 16-24 are based on the following passage.

The passage below is adapted from a collection of essays published in 2000.

10. In line 1, the language refers to (A) a dialect unique to settlements concentrated along a certain river (B) natural characteristics indicating the presence of specific conditions (C) the body of writing dealing with a particular natural environment (D) the rhythm of human travel along a waterway (E) words used to render actual experience into mental images 11. The contrast between the first and second paragraphs primarily emphasizes a fundamental change in (A) (B) (C) (D) (E) location perception weather personal health literary training 15

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12. Lines 38-46 (Since . . . trade?) serve what purpose in the development of the authors argument? (A) They draw a general conclusion about the authors fate. 25

Back in 1978, having just finished graduate school and feeling somewhat inhibited by having read and dissected the major works of great, dead men of letters, I thought Id be glad if someone referred to me simply as a writer. Now I find myself not just a writer, but bearing the added responsibility of being a Latina writer. What is a Latina writer, and how did I become one? My case as a developing Latina writer is somewhat different from that of others in that, except for the years during my childhood when my family lived in Puerto Rico and in a Puerto Rican neighborhood in Paterson, New Jersey, I have lived in relative geographical isolation from the Latino communities of the United States. I stress the word geographical because, in my mind, I have never abandoned the island of my birth, or perhaps that obsession called the Island has never left me. It is the subject of much of my writing. However, I am not a scholar in the field of Latino literature, but rather a writer of books written in English whose main subjects and settings often reflect the authors emigrant background and issues pertaining to her ethnicity. In the 1960s, growing up in two confusing and increasingly fragmented cultures, I absorbed literature, both the spoken tales I heard the women in my family tell and the books I buried my head in as if I were a creature who consumed paper and ink for sustenance. As a young college student I first majored in sociology, hoping to find a way to

2020 PT 6 | Reading (C) physical realities and emotional bonds (D) childhood reminiscences and adult choices (E) life in New Jersey and life in Puerto Rico 19. In line 16, field most nearly means (A) (B) (C) (D) (E) unbroken expanse background knowledge academic specialty battleground sphere of influence

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change the world. With the Vietnam War on my TV screen daily and the other ongoing attacks on my political navet, it was not long before the spell of innocence was broken. For the spiritual sustenance I craved I returned to my first love, literature. Although the world was tearing itself asunder, each author I read put it back together for me, giving order to chaos, however fleetingly. While I was visiting the realm of its creator, the poem, the story, or the novel made sense of things for me. I decided that words were my medium; language could be tamed. I could make it perform for me, if I could only hold back the madness outside with my pen. In other words, I had to believe that my work was important to my being. My mission as an emerging writer became to use my art as a bridge, so that I would not be like my parents, who precariously straddled cultures, always fearing the fall, anxious as to which side they really belonged to; I would be crossing the bridge of my design and construction, at will, not abandoning either side, but traveling back and forth without fear and confusion about where I belongedI belong to both. This is what it means to me to be a Puerto Rican American writer: to claim my heritageto drink from the life-giving waters of my own backyard well, to eat the mango fruit of knowledge of good and evil that grows in Borinquen, the tropical island of my grandmothers tales, as well as to acknowledge the troubled, real island of Puerto Rico I can travel back to any time I desireand also to claim the language of my education, English, the culture and literature of the country I was brought to as a child. I claim both. I plant my little writers flag on both shores. There are exclusivists who would have me choose sides: I do not find such a choice necessary, any more than Isaac Bashevis Singer gave up being Jewish when he wrote his universal tales, any more than Alice Walker denies her African American roots and Deep South beginnings to write her American novels. It is neither necessary nor beneficial to me as a writer and an individual to give up anything that makes me a whole person.

20. In lines 20-24 (In the. . . sustenance), the author describes literature as both (A) (B) (C) (D) (E) entertaining and instructive compelling and fearsome provocative and comforting oral and written direct and indirect

21. Which of the following statements best captures the authors portrayal of language (line 34)? (A) Language is a useful tool to spark political change. (B) Language can serve as a defense against a disordered world. (C) A common language is necessary for true communication between different cultures. (D) The most effective language is expressive and undisciplined. (E) Writers have a more subtle understanding of language than do most other people. 22. The authors flag (line 55) is used to claim

16. The use of italics in line 6 serves primarily to (A) (B) (C) (D) (E) emphasize a distinction that the author goes on to discuss highlight the widespread misuse of a common term clarify the authors position on a controversial subject define a foreign phrase for an English-speaking audience convey anger about a situation that the author regards as unfair

(A) the experiences from both cultures to use in her writing (B) the right to choose her profession as an artist (C) a market for her work in both Puerto Rico and the United States (D) the freedom to express her political thoughts through her literature (E) the ability to write fluently in both English and Spanish 23. It can be inferred that the exclusivists (line 55) believe that

17. Lines 7-12 (My case . . . United States) imply that (A) the author is embarrassed by her lack of involvement with Latino communities (B) other Latina writers have more direct contact with Latino communities than the author does (C) the author is bothered by the haziness of her childhood memories (D) the Puerto Rican community of the authors youth was not a typical one (E) the author objects to the subjects chosen by other Latina writers 18. The authors use of the term geographical in line 11 indicates her awareness of a contrast between (A) small towns and urban centers (B) material aspirations and artistic goals (A) few people have the ability necessary to become good writers (B) belonging to two cultures is neither truly possible nor desirable (C) writers who focus on popular rather than serious culture achieve financial, but not critical, success (D) the best Hispanic American writers compose in Spanish rather than in English (E) ignoring ones cultural heritage is an artistic mistake 24. The authors overall tone is best described as (A) (B) (C) (D) (E) cynical remote amused reflective empathetic

SECTION 4 Time 25 minutes 24 Questions 7.

2020 PT 6 | Reading

Already famous for becoming ----- at the slightest criticism, the director surpassed himself by the ----- of his anger at the nearly unanimous panning of his latest film. (A) (B) (C) (D) (E) remorseful . . ferocity vengeful . . complacency incensed . . vehemence obsequious . . malevolence dejected . . alacrity

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Eleanor had the right combination of ----- and ----- to become the magazines copy editor: she was an expert proofreader and had worked in publishing for many years. (A) (B) (C) (D) (E) taste . . zeal talent . . independence foresight . . background skill . . experience ambition . . objectivity

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Although the poets status as a modernist master is by now all but -----, her unsavory politics continue to ----- many who study her works today. (A) (B) (C) (D) (E) canonical . . berate incontrovertible . . trouble undeclared . . instigate hypothetical . . polarize inconclusive . . provoke

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Many plants possess some ----- qualities and as a result have effectively been used as folk remedies. (A) (B) (C) (D) (E) extraneous therapeutic ornamental emergent imaginative

Questions 9-10 are based on the following passage.

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Geologist John Spray found that a seemingly ----- distribution of ancient meteorite craters, when adjusted to the configuration of the Earths continents 215 million years ago, actually formed a distinct -----. (A) (B) (C) (D) (E) scattered.. abyss localized . . expansion random . . pattern prehistoric . . impression systematic . . increment

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We were pitied for going to Dunamara instead of to some sandy beach. But we loved Dunamara; the rocks themselves, the derelict lobster pots and fish crates, the long clefts filled with anemones and fish like darning needles charmed us. Other cousins coming to see us thought that we were a melancholy crew prowling along this broken shore, with muddy legs and rusty hands, dragging some piece of iron or old ships timber along with us; but we would not have changed places with them on their bathing beaches. For we set a special value on our shore, as a place fit for explorers and hunters. The details in lines 2-4 (the rocks . . . needles) serve primarily to illustrate the (A) humorous exaggeration of the narrators description of Dunamara (B) notable differences between adult and juvenile views of Dunamara (C) characteristics of Dunamara that the narrator valued more than might be expected (D) features that Dunamara shared with more-popular beaches (E) narrators dissatisfaction with typical family vacations

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If good judgment involves both logic and intuitive reasoning, then suppressing the intuition might actually ----- judgment. (A) (B) (C) (D) (E) distort manipulate replace complement regulate

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Today some historians of technology are trying to ----- the reputations of forgotten inventors in order to rescue them from undeserved obscurity. (A) (B) (C) (D) (E) expunge renounce disavow standardize revive

10. The passage as a whole suggests that the attitude of the crew (line 6) is most nearly one of (A) (B) (C) (D) (E) youthful adventurousness childish petulance nervous anticipation weary indifference deliberate recklessness

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He always spoke with a ----- tone that invested even the most ----- conversations with a faint air of illicitness.
Questions 11-12 are based on the following passage.

(A) (B) (C) (D) (E)

conspiratorial . . innocuous thoughtful . . virtuous guilty . . nefarious candid . . meandering menacing . . truculent

At a dinner party some time ago, a smooth and hypersatisfied young man boasted to me that he had just completed a round-the-world sightseeing tour in 79 days. In one jet-streamed breath, he scuttled from St. Peters Basilica, Rome, via the Egyptian pyramids, to a Cambodian jungle

2020 PT 6 | Reading force between bodies that makes the apple fall with an acceleration of 10 meters per second. Perhaps consciousness is like that, and we may get no further than stating that it is what it does: a property of the brain that makes us aware of ourselves and of the world around us, a beam of light directed outward, as the fictional character Dr. Zhivago calls it. In the absence of knowledge of the physical nature of consciousness, the question of whether it will ever be possible to simulate it with a machine cannot be answered.

temple. Thats the way to travel, he said. You see everything important. When I suggested that the way to see important things was to walk, he almost dropped his club soda. 40 11. In line 1, smooth most nearly means (A) (B) (C) (D) (E) crafty velvety gentle dull suave 45 12. The authors attitude toward the young man (line 2) is best characterized as (A) (B) (C) (D) (E) irate envious critical indifferent apprehensive 50

Passage 2 There is an odd little subculture within science whose members speculate about how intelligence might evolve when or if it sheds its human component. Participants are not practicing science, of course, but wishful thinking. They are concerned not with what the world is, but with what it might be centuries or millennia hence. Their suppositions may nonetheless provide fresh perspectives on some age-old philosophical questions: What would we do if we could do anything? What are the ultimate limits of knowledge? One modern practitioner who addresses these questions is robotics engineer Hans Moravec. Moravec is a cheerful man who seems to be literally intoxicated by his own ideas. As he unveiled his visions of the future during my conversation with him, his intensity seemed proportional to the preposterousness of what he said. Moravec asserted that science desperately needs new goals. Most of the things that have been accomplished in this century were really nineteenth-century ideas, he said. Its time for fresh ideas now. What goal could be more thrilling than creating mind children, intelligent machines capable of feats we cannot even imagine? In his 1988 book Mind Children, Moravec discussed the possibility of creating such intelligent machines. He assured me that engineers will soon create robots that can do household chores. And by the next century, Moravec said, robots will be as intelligent as humans and will essentially take over the economy. Were really out of work at that point, Moravec claimed. Humans might still pursue some quirky stuff like poetry that springs from psychological vagaries beyond the grasp of robots, but robots will have all the important jobs. But what, I asked, will these machines do with their newfound power? Will they be interested in pursuing science for its own sake? Absolutely, Moravec replied. Thats the core of my fantasy: that our nonbiological descendants, without most of our limitations, could pursue basic knowledge of things. In fact, science will be the only worthy motive of intelligent machines. Im sure the basic labels and subdivisions of the nature of reality are going to change, Moravec added. Machines may view human attitudes toward consciousness, for example, as hopelessly primitive, akin to the primitive physics concepts of the ancient Greeks. * Alan Mathison Turing (1912-1954) was a pioneer in computer
theory.

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Questions 13-24 are based on the following passages.

These passages discuss artificial intelligence, the simulation of mental activities by computers. Passage 1 is adapted from a 1985 book review by a Nobel Prize-winning chemist. Passage 2, written by a science journalist, is adapted from a 1996 book.

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Passage 1 Artificial intelligence has attracted some of the worlds best mathematicians and scientists. They have found it possible to simulate sophisticated activities like playing chess but hard to imitate the simple ability of seeing in three dimensions, as if it took more intelligence for a frog to catch a fly than for a chess player to formulate winning strategies. Common sense dictates that there is more to the human brain than problem solving and information processing, because with consciousness goes individuality, imagination, love of beauty, tears and laughter, heroism and cowardice, and occasionally artistic talent. Greatness in art and poetry carries with it an idiosyncratic, evocative, often irrational way of looking at the world and expressing its image, as in Paul Gauguins paintingswhich incorporate nonnaturalistic colors and abstract figuresor Samuel Taylor Coleridges dreamlike ballad, The Rime of the Ancient Mariner. Irish writer George Moore expressed the distinction best when he said that art is not mathematics, its individuality. Even so, artificial intelligence experts are brilliant at confounding any specific distinction between humans and computers that a layperson raises. For example, A. M. Turing* devised a question-andanswer game between A and B, who are in one room, and C, who is in another, and can communicate with A and B only by typed messages. C tries to discover whether A or B is a person or a computer, but the computer defeats Cs interrogation. When C asks A to write a sonnet, the computer answers quite reasonably, I never could write poetry. Will computers ever acquire consciousness? Physiologists have discovered how the eye processes images, and they have mapped areas of the brain where speech and hearing are centered, but the physical nature of consciousness has eluded them. As a schoolboy, I was mystified by gravity, and when I reached college I eagerly attended physics lectures in hopes of learning what it really is. I was disappointed when I was merely taught that gravity is what it does, that it is an attractive

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13. In lines 11-18, the author of Passage 1 describes a certain type of greatness as (A) (B) (C) (D) (E) a misunderstood accomplishment an unreasonable expectation an achievement sought after but rarely attained the end result of intelligent decisions the product of a subjective and personal vision

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2020 PT 6 | Reading (E) lack the intellectual maturity of adult human beings 20. In lines 70-71, Hans Moravecs pronouncement (Were . . . point) most directly reflects his conviction that (A) (B) (C) (D) (E) robots will expand the boundaries of science people will lose their motivation to work society will be irreparably damaged machines will undermine creativity robots will in most ways supplant humans

14. In George Moores observation (line 18), mathematics most likely refers to the (A) (B) (C) (D) (E) predictability of natural law ability of humans to think creatively workings of pure logic simulation of human thought manipulation of data by machines

15. In line 21, raises most nearly means (A) (B) (C) (D) (E) cultivates incites increases brings up for consideration places in a higher position

21. In the last sentence of Passage 2 (line 85), the ancient Greeks are referred to as people who (A) held some notions that today seem quaint and outdated (B) believed they understood physics better than other realms of knowledge (C) laid the foundations for many of the great discoveries of science (D) relied more on philosophical speculation than on empirical observation (E) made the most of the limited knowledge available to them 22. How does the reference to poetry in Passage 1 (line 11) relate to the reference to poetry in Passage 2 (line 72)? (A) The first celebrates poetrys ability to capture human emotion; the second criticizes the banality of poetic sentiment. (B) The first portrays poetry as a mark of human intelligence; the second suggests that robots are potentially capable of artistic endeavor. (C) The first points to the mysteries of the human mind; the second suggests how readily the minds processes can be understood. (D) The first presents poetry as an embodiment of uniquely human creativity; the second dismisses it as a superfluous enterprise. (E) The first suggests that few people can create poetry; the second implies that poetry can be created by any intelligent entity. 23. Given his prediction in lines 83-85 (Machines . . . Greeks), Moravec would most likely characterize the ideas about consciousness in Passage 1 as (A) claims that eventually may be substantiated by scientific research (B) solutions to age-old philosophical questions (C) axioms that have withstood the test of time (D) views that are destined to become outmoded (E) examples of self-destructive thinking 24. The attitudes toward artificial intelligence expressed by the author of Passage 1 and by Hans Moravec in Passage 2, respectively, are best described as (A) (B) (C) (D) (E) reasoned concern and overwhelming anxiety thoughtful skepticism and eager anticipation personal indignation and troubled indecision moral reproach and unbridled enthusiasm knowledgeable assurance and cautious interest

16. In lines 33-37 (As a . . . second), the anecdote about physics serves to (A) express frustration with the inflexibility of scientific principles (B) contrast a complex subject with one that is elementary (C) suggest that certain phenomena can be understood only partially (D) illustrate how science helps people make sense of the world (E) criticize those who insist that everything must have a purpose 17. The quote in lines 40-41 (a beam . . . outward) refers to the (A) (B) (C) (D) (E) explanatory power of science nature of human perception limits of artificial intelligence social nature of human beings physical structure of the brain

18. The author of Passage 2 indicates that Participants are not practicing science (lines 47-48) primarily because they (A) bolster their beliefs with outmoded theories (B) adhere to a philosophy that reveres machines instead of human beings (C) exhibit an intensity that is uncharacteristic of more levelheaded scholars (D) are more concerned with gaining public attention than with making important discoveries (E) speculate about what might happen instead of explaining observable phenomena 19. Based on the second paragraph of Passage 2, the term mind children (line 64) is appropriate because it describes machines that will (A) be the intellectual product of humans and have the capacity to surpass them (B) be a constant source of worry as well as delight for their human parents (C) be capable of artistic creativity beyond that of their inventors (D) create new generations of computers with even greater intellectual sophistication