Central ideas/inference

It was not really a pretty house at all; it was quite ordinary, and mother thought it was rather inconvenient, and was quite annoyed at there being no shelves, to speak of, and hardly a cupboard in the place. Father used to say that the ironwork on the roof and coping was like an architect's nightmare. But the house was deep in the country, with no other house in sight, and the children had been in London for two years, without so much as once going to the seaside even for a day by an excursion train, and so the White House seemed to them a sort of Fairy Palace set down in an Earthly Paradise.

Which choice best states the main idea of the text?

• The house is beautiful and well built, but the children miss their old home in London.

• The children don't like the house nearly as much as their parents do.

• Each member of the family admires a different characteristic of the house

• Although their parents believe the house has several drawbacks, the children are enchanted by it.

It is a saying in the capital of Mexico that Dr. Malsufrido carries more family secrets under his hat than any archbishop. The doctor's hat is, appropriately enough, uncommonly capacious, rising very high, and sinking so low that it seems to be supported by his ears and eyebrows, and it has a furry look, as if it had been brushed the wrong way, which is perhaps what happens to it if it is ever brushed at all. When the doctor takes it off, the family secrets do not fly out like a flock of parrots, but remain nicely bottled up beneath a dome of old and highly polished ivory.

Based on the text, how do people in the capital of Mexico most likely regard Dr. Malsufrido?

• Few feel concerned that he will divulge their confidences.

• Many have come to tolerate him despite his disheveled appearance.

• Most would be unimpressed by him were it not for his professional expertise.

• Some dislike how freely he discusses his own family.

To protect themselves when being attacked, hagfish—jawless marine animals that resemble eels—will release large quantities of slimy, mucus-like threads. Because these threads are unusually strong and elastic, scientist Atsuko Negishi and her colleagues have been trying to recreate them in a lab as an eco-friendly alternative to petroleum-based fibers that are often used in fabrics. The researchers want to reproduce the threads in the lab because farming hagfish for their slime would be expensive and potentially harmful to the hagfish.

Which choice best states the text's main idea?

• Hagfish are not well suited to being raised in captivity.

• The ability of hagfish to slime their attackers compensates for their being jawless.

• Hagfish have inspired researchers to develop a new petroleum-based fabric.

• The slimy threads that hagfish release might help researchers create a new kind of fabric.

Artist Justin Favela explained that he wanted to reclaim the importance of the piñata as a symbol in Latinx culture. To do so, he created numerous sculptures from strips of tissue paper, which is similar to the material used to create piñatas. In 2017, Favela created an impressive life-size piñata-like sculpture of the Gypsy Rose lowrider car, which was displayed at the Petersen Automotive Museum in Los Angeles, California. The Gypsy Rose lowrider was famously driven by Jesse Valadez, an early president of the Los Angeles Imperials Car Club.

According to the text, which piece of Favela's art was on display in the Petersen Automotive Museum in 2017?

• A painting of Los Angeles

• A painting of a piñata

• A sculpture of Jesse Valadez

• A sculpture of a lowrider car

In a study of new technology adoption, Davit Marikyan et al. examined negative disconfirmation (which occurs when experiences fall short of one's expectations) to determine whether it could lead to positive outcomes for users. The team focused on established users of "smart home" technology, which presents inherent utilization challenges but tends to attract users with high expectations, often leading to feelings of dissonance. The researchers found that many users employed cognitive mechanisms to mitigate those feelings, ultimately reversing their initial sense of disappointment.

Which choice best states the main idea of the text?

• Research suggests that users with high expectations for a new technology can feel content with that technology even after experiencing negative disconfirmation.

• Research suggests that most users of smart home technology will not achieve a feeling of satisfaction given the utilization challenges of such technology.

• Although most smart home technology is aimed at meeting or exceeding users' high expectations, those expectations in general remain poorly understood.

• Although negative disconfirmation has often been studied, little is known about the cognitive mechanisms shaping users' reactions to it in the context of new technology adoption.

Arthur Conan Doyle's stories about detective Sherlock Holmes were published between 1887 and 1927. They have inspired countless successful adaptations, including comic strips, movies, and a television series Sherlock Hound, directed by Hayao Miyazaki, who is celebrated for his animated movies. Until 2014, these stories were copyrighted. The right to adapt was only available to those who could afford the copyright fee and gain approval from the strict copyright holders of Doyle's estate. Some journalists predict that the number of Sherlock Holmes adaptations is likely to increase since the end of copyright means that ______

Which choice most logically completes the text?

• producing adaptations will become easier and less expensive.

• people will become more interested in detective stories than they were in the 1800s.

• the former copyright holders of Doyle's estate will return fees they collected.

• Doyle's original stories will become hard to find.

Tides can deposit large quantities of dead vegetation within a salt marsh, smothering healthy plants and leaving a salt panne—a depression devoid of plants that tends to trap standing water—in the marsh's interior. Ecologist Kathryn Beheshti and colleagues found that burrowing crabs living within these pannes improve drainage by loosening the soil, leading the pannes to shrink as marsh plants move back in. At salt marsh edges, however, crab-induced soil loosening can promote marsh loss by accelerating erosion, suggesting that the burrowing action of crabs ______

Which choice most logically completes the text?

• can be beneficial to marshes with small pannes but can be harmful to marshes with large pannes.

• may promote increases in marsh plants or decreases in marsh plants, depending on the crabs' location.

• tends to be more heavily concentrated in areas of marsh interiors with standing water than at marsh edges.

• varies in intensity depending on the size of the panne relative to the size of the surrounding marsh.

In her 2021 article "Throwaway History: Towards a Historiography of Ephemera," scholar Anne Garner discusses John Johnson (1882–1956), a devoted collector of items intended to be discarded, including bus tickets and campaign pamphlets. Johnson recognized that scholarly institutions considered his expansive collection of ephemera to be worthless—indeed, it wasn't until 1968, after Johnson's death, that Oxford University's Bodleian Library acquired the collection, having grasped the items' potential value to historians and other researchers. Hence, the example of Johnson serves to ______

Which choice most logically completes the text?

• represent the challenge of incorporating examples of ephemera into the collections of libraries and other scholarly institutions.

• illustrate both the relatively low scholarly regard in which ephemera was once held and the later recognition of ephemera's possible utility.

• lend support to arguments by historians and other researchers who continue to assert that ephemera holds no value for scholars.

• demonstrate the difficulties faced by contemporary historians in conducting research at the Bodleian Library without access to ephemera.

In many cultures, a handshake can create trust between people. Engineer Jo?o Avelino and his team are designing a robot to shake hands with a human in order to improve human-robot interactions. The robot hand adjusts its movements and pressure to better imitate the feel of a human hand. The researchers want the robot's handshake to feel realistic because ______

Which choice most logically completes the text?

• people are less likely to interact with robots that don't look like humans.

• it's easier to program a robot to perform handshakes than it is to program a robot to perform some other types of greetings.

• the robot in the researchers' study may have uses other than interacting with humans.

• lifelike handshakes may make people more comfortable interacting with robots.

Researchers Suchithra Rajendran and Maximilian Popfinger modeled varying levels of passenger redistribution from short-haul flights (flights of 50 to 210 minutes, from takeoff to landing) to high-speed rail trips. Planes travel faster than trains, but air travel typically requires 3 hours of lead time for security, baggage handling, and boarding that rail travel doesn't, so short-haul routes take similar amounts of time by air and by rail. However, the model suggests that as rail passenger volumes approach current capacity limits, long lead times emerge. Therefore, for rail to remain a viable alternative to short-haul flights, ______

Which choice most logically completes the text?

• rail systems should offer fewer long-haul routes and airlines should offer more long-haul routes.

• rail systems may need to schedule additional trains for these routes.

• security, baggage handling, and boarding procedures used by airlines may need to be implemented for rail systems.

• passengers who travel by rail for these routes will need to accept that lead times will be similar to those for air travel.