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The following text is adapted from Lewis Carroll's 1865 novel Alice's Adventures in Wonderland. "The second thing is to find my way into that lovely garden. I think that will be the best plan." It sounded like an excellent plan, no doubt, and very neatly and simply arranged; the only difficulty was, that Alice had not the smallest idea how to set about it. As used in the text, what does the word "simply" most nearly mean?

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## Text 1 Ecologists have long wondered how thousands of microscopic phytoplankton species can live together near ocean surfaces competing for the same resources. According to conventional wisdom, one species should emerge after outcompeting the rest. So why do so many species remain? Ecologists' many efforts to explain this phenomenon still haven't uncovered a satisfactory explanation. ### Text 2 Ecologist Michael Behrenfeld and colleagues have connected phytoplankton's diversity to their microscopic size. Because these organisms are so tiny, they are spaced relatively far apart from each other in ocean water and, moreover, experience that water as a relatively dense substance. This in turn makes it hard for them to move around and interact with one another. Therefore, says Behrenfeld's team, direct competition among phytoplankton probably happens much less than previously thought. Based on the texts, how would Behrenfeld and colleagues (Text 2) most likely respond to the "conventional wisdom" discussed in Text 1?

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Text 1 American sculptor Edmonia Lewis is best known for her sculptures that represent figures from history and mythology, such as The Death of Cleopatra and Hagar. Although Lewis sculpted other subjects, her career as a sculptor is best represented by the works in which she depicted these historical and mythical themes. Text 2 Art historians have typically ignored the many portrait busts Edmonia Lewis created. Lewis likely carved these busts (sculptures of a person's head) frequently throughout her long career. She is known for her sculptures that represent historical figures, but Lewis likely supported herself financially by carving portrait busts for acquaintances who paid her to represent their features. Thus, Lewis's portrait busts are a central aspect of her career as a sculptor. Based on the texts, both authors would most likely agree with which statement?

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Part of the Atacama Desert in Peru has surprisingly rich plant life despite receiving almost no rainfall. Moisture from winter fog sustains plants once they're growing, but the soil's tough crust makes it hard for seeds to germinate in the first place. Local birds that dig nests in the ground seem to be of help: they churn the soil, exposing buried seeds to moisture and nutrients. Indeed, in 2016 Cristina Rengifio Fairfer found that mounds of soil dug up by birds were far more fertile and supported more seedlings than soil in undisturbed areas. Which choice best describes the function of the underlined portion in the text as a whole?

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Text 1 Some animal species, like the leopard, can be found in many kinds of areas. On the other hand, tropical mountain bird species tend to be limited in the types of spaces they can call home. This is because many mountain bird species are only able to survive at very specific elevations. Over time, these species have likely become used to living at a specific temperature. Therefore, these species struggle to survive at elevations that are warmer or colder than they are used to. Text 2 A new study reviewed observations of nearly 3,000 bird species to understand why tropical mountain bird species live at specific elevations. They noted that when a mountain bird species was found in an area with many other bird species, it tended to inhabit much smaller geographic areas. It is thus likely that competition for resources with other species, not temperature, limits where these birds can live. Based on the texts, both authors would most likely agree with which statement?

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For a 2020 exhibition, photographer and neurobiologist Okunola Jeyifous -- a series of new images based on a series of alphabet posters from the 1970s known as the "Black ABCs," which featured Black children from Chicago. Jeyifous photographed the now-adult models and layered the photos over magnified images of the models' cells, resulting in what he called "micro and macro portraiture." Which choice completes the text with the most logical and precise word or phrase?

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Archaeologists studying an ancient amphitheater in Switzerland believe that it dates back to the fourth century CE. Their discoveries of a coin made between 337 and 341 CE and era-appropriate building materials evidence for this theory. Which choice completes the text with the most logical and precise word or phrase?

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By combining Indigenous and classical music, Cree composer and cellist Cris Derksen creates works that reflect the diverse cultural landscape of Canada. For her album Orchestral Powow, Derksen composed new songs in the style of traditional powwow music that were accompanied by classical arrangements played by an orchestra. But where an orchestra would normally follow the directions of a conductor, the musicians on Orchestral Powow are led by the beat of a powwow drum. Which choice best states the main purpose of the text?

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Horizontal gene transfer occurs when an organism of one species acquires genetic material from an organism of another species through nonreproductive means. The genetic material can then be transferred "vertically" in the second species--that is, through reproductive inheritance. Scientist Atma lvancevic and her team have hypothesized infection by invertebrate parasites as a mechanism of horizontal gene transfer between vertebrate species: while feeding, a parasite could acquire a gene from one host, then relocate to a host from a different vertebrate species and transfer the gene to it in turn. Which choice best describes the function of the underlined portion in the text as a whole?

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The following text is from Herman Melville's 1854 novel The Lightning-rod Man. The stranger still stood in the exact middle of the cottage, where he had first planted himself. His singularityimelled a closer scrutiny, A lean, gloomy figure. Hair dark and lank, mattedly streaked over his brow. His sunken pitfalls of eyes were ringed by indigo halos, and played with an innocuous sort of lightning: the gleam without the bolt. The whole man was dripping. He stood in a puddle on the bare oak floor: his strange walking-stick vertically resting at his side. Which choice best states the function of the underlined sentence in the overall structure of the text?

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As a young photographer in the 1950s, William Klein the conventions of photography by creating images that were high contrast and included blurred and distorted elements--features generally seen as flaws. So unorthodox was Klein's work that he had difficulty finding a publisher for his now-iconic 1956 photo book Life is Good & Good for You in New York. Which choice completes the text with the most logical and precise word or phrase?

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The following text is adapted from Susan Glaspell's 1912 short story "Out There." An elderly shop owner is looking at a picture that he recently acquired and hopes to sell. It did seem that the picture failed to fit in with the rest of the shop. A persuasive young fellow who claimed he was closing out his stock let the old man have it for what he called a song. It was only a little out-of-the-way store which subsisted chiefly on the framing of pictures. The old man looked around at his views of the city, his pictures of cats and dogs, his flaming bits of landscape. "Don't belong in here," he fumed. And yet the old man was secretly proud of his acquisition. There was a hidden dignity in his scowling as he shuffled about pondering the least ridiculous place for the picture. Which choice best states the main purpose of the text?

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According to a US tax policy expert, state taxes are other factors when considering an interstate move. Even significant differences in state taxation have almost no effect on most people's decisions, while differences in employment opportunities, housing availability, and climate are strong influences. Which choice completes the text with the most logical and precise word or phrase?

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Rydra Wong, the protagonist of Samuel R. Delany's 1966 novel Babel-17, is a poet, an occupation which, in Delany's work, is not : nearly a dozen of the characters that populate his novels are poets or writers. Which choice completes the text with the most logical and precise word or phrase?

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Novelist N. K. Jemisin declines to the conventions of the science fiction genre in which she writes, and she has suggested that her readers appreciate her work precisely because of this willingness to thwart expectations and avoid formulaic plots and themes. Which choice completes the text with the most logical and precise word or phrase?

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The following text is adapted from Gwendolyn Bennett's 1926 poem "Street Lamps in Early Spring." Night wears a garment All velvet soft, all violet blue... And over her face she draws a veil As shimmering fine as floating dew... And here and there In the black of her hair The subtle hands of Night Move slowly with their gem-starred light. Which choice best describes the overall structure of the text?

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The following text is adapted from Amy Lowell's 1912 poem "Summer." It is summer, glorious, deep-toned summer, The very crown of nature's changing year When all her surging life is at its full. To me alone it is a time of pause, A void and silent space between two worlds, When inspiration lags, and feeling sleeps, Gathering strength for efforts yet to come. As used in the text, what does the phrase "a void" most nearly mean?

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The following text is from Frances Hodgson Burnett's 1911 novel The Secret Garden. Mary, a young girl, is outside trying her new jump rope. The sun was shining and a little wind was blowing--not a rough wind, but one which came in delightful little gusts and brought a fresh scent of newly turned earth with it. She skipped round the fountain garden, and up one walk and down another. As used in the text, what does the word "rough" most nearly mean?

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### Text 1 Although food writing is one of the most widely read genres in the United States, literary scholars have long neglected it. And within this genre, cookbooks attract the least scholarly attention of all, regardless of how well written they may be. This is especially true of works dedicated to regional US cuisines, whose complexity and historical significance are often overlooked. ### Text 2 With her 1976 cookbook The Taste of Country Cooking, Edna Lewis popularized the refined Southern cooking she had grown up with in Freetown, an all-Black community in Virginia. She also set a new standard for cookbook writing: the recipes and memoir passages interspersing them are written in prose more elegant than that of most novels. Yet despite its inarguable value as a piece of writing, Lewis's masterpiece has received almost no attention from literary, scholars. Based on the two texts, how would the author of Text 1 most likely regard the situation presented in the underlined sentence in Text 2?

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The following text is from Booth Tarkington's 1921 novel Alice Adams. Mrs. Adams had always been fond of vases, she said, and every year her husband's Christmas present to her was a vase of one sort or another--whatever the clerk showed him, marked at about twelve or fourteen dollars. As used in the text, what does the word "marked" most nearly mean?

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Investigating whether shared false visual memories--specific but inaccurate and widely held recollections of images such as product logos--are caused by people's previous incorrect renditions of the images, researchers Deepasri Prasad and Wilma Bainbridge found that, in fact, such memories are often not explained by familiarity with erroneous versions of the images. Which choice completes the text with the most logical and precise word or phrase?

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Text 1 The fossil record suggests that mammths went extinct around 11 thousand years (kyr) ago. In a 2021 study of environmental DNA (eDNA)--genetic material shed into the environment by organisms--in the Arctic, Yucheng Wang and colleagues found mammoth eDNA in sedimentary layers formed millennia later, around 4 kyr ago. To account for this discrepancy, Joshua H. Miller and Carl Simpson proposed that arctic temperatures could preserve a mammoth carcass on the surface, allowing it to leach DNA into the environment, for several thousand years. Text 2 Wang and colleagues concede that eDNA contains DNA from both living organisms and carcasses, but for DNA to leach from remains over several millennia requires that the remains be perpetually on the surface. Scavengers and weathering in the Arctic, however, are likely to break down surface remains well before a thousand years have passed. Which choice best describes how Text 1 and Text 2 relate to each other?

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## Text 1 Many studies in psychology have shown that people seek out information even when they know in advance that they have no immediate use for it and that they won't directly benefit from it. Such findings support the consensus view among researchers of curiosity: namely, that curiosity is not instrumental but instead represents a drive to acquire information for its own sake. Text 2 While acknowledging that acquiring information is a powerful motivator, Rachit Dubey and colleagues ran an experiment to test whether emphasizing the usefulness of scientific information could increase curiosity about it. They found that when research involving rats and fruit flies was presented as having medical applications for humans, participants expressed greater interest in learning about it than when the research was not presented as useful. Based on the texts, how would Dubey and colleagues (Text 2) most likely respond to the consensus view discussed in Text 1?

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Genetic studies have led researchers to suggest that turtles are most closely related to the group that includes modern crocodiles. But studies of fossils have suggested instead that turtles are most closely related to other groups, such as the one that contains modern snakes. However, many of the fossil studies have relied on incomplete data sets. For a 2022 investigation, biologist Tiago R. Simoes and colleagues examined more than 1,000 reptile fossils collected worldwide. From this large data set, they found clear agreement with the results of the genetic studies. Which choice best describes the function of the underlined sentence?

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Text 1 In a study of insect behavior, Samadi Galpayage and colleagues presented bumblebees with small wooden balls and observed many of the bees clinging to, rolling, and dragging the objects. The researchers provided no external rewards (such as food) to encourage these interactions. The bees simply appeared to be playing=and for no other reason than because they were having fun. Text 2 Insects do not have cortexes or other brain areas associated with emotions in humans. Still, Galpayage and her team have shown that bumblebees may engage in play, possibly experiencing some kind of positive emotional state. Other studies have suggested that bees experience negative emotional states (for example, stress), but as Galpayage and her team have acknowledged, emotions in insects, if they do indeed exist, are likely very rudimentary. Based on the texts, how would the author of Text 2 most likely respond to the underlined portion of Text 1?

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