9.2 Supporting Undermining - Hard

Many governments that regularly transfer money to individuals—to provide  supplemental incomes for senior citizens,for example—have long done so electronically,but other countries typically have distributed physical money and have only recently developed electronic transfer  infrastructure.Researchers studied the introduction of an electronic transfer system in one such location and found that recipients of electronic transfers consumed a different array of foods than recipients of physical transfers ofthe same amount did.One potential explanation for this result is that individuals conceive of and allocate funds in physical money differently than they conceive of and allocate funds in electronic form.

 

Which finding from the study,if true,would most directly weaken the potential explanation?

• A.Recipients of electronic transfers typically spent their funds at a slower rate than recipients of physical transfers did.

• B .Some recipients of physical transfers received small amounts of money relatively frequently, while others received large amounts relatively infrequently.

• C.Recipients of physical transfers tended to purchase food about as frequently as recipients of electronic transfers did.

• D.Nearly every recipient of an electronic transfer withdrew the entire amount in physical money shortly after receiving the transfer.

Neural networks are computer models intended to reflect the organization of human brains and are often used in studies of brain function.According to an analysis of 11,000 such networks,Rylan Schaeffer  and  colleagues  advise  caution  when   drawing  conclusions  about  brains   from observations of neural networks.They found that when attempting to mimic grid cells (brain cells used in navigation),while 90%of the networks could accomplish navigation-related tasks,only about  10%of those  exhibited  any  behaviors  similar  to  those  of  grid  cells.  But  even  this approximation of grid-cell activity has less to do with similarity between the neural networks and biological brains than it does with the rules programmed into the networks.

 

Which finding,if true,would most directly support the claim in the underlined sentence?

• A.The rules that allow for networks to exhibit behaviors like those of grid cells have no equivalent in the function of biological brains.

• B.The  networks  that  do  not  exhibit  behaviors  like  those  of  grid  cells  were  nonetheless programmed with rules that had proven useful in earlier neural-network studies.

• C.Once  a  neural  network  is  programmed,it  is  trained  on  certain  tasks  to  see  if  it  can independently arrive at processes that are similar to those performed by biological brains.

• D.Neural networks can often accomplish tasks that biological brains do,but they are typically programmed with rules to model multiple types of brain cells simultaneously.

In  the  1980s,many  musicians  and  journalists  in  the  English-speaking  world  began  to  draw attention to music from around the globe—such as mbaqanga from South Africa and quan ho from  Vietnam—that can't be easily categorized according to British or North American popular music genres,typically referring to such music as"world music."While some scholars have welcomed this development for bringing diverse musical forms to prominence in countries where they'd previously  been  overlooked,musicologist  Su  Zheng  claims  that  the  concept  of  world  music homogenizes highly distinct traditions by reducing them all to a single category.

 

Which finding about mbaqanga and quan ho,if true,would most directly support Zheng's claim? 

• A.Mbaqanga is significantly more popular in the English-speaking world than quan ho is.

• B.Mbaqanga  and  quan ho  developed  independently  of each  other  and  have  little  in  common musically.

• C.Mbaqanga and quan ho are now performed by a diverse array of musicians with no direct connections to South Africa or Vietnam.

• D.Mbaqanga and quan ho are highly distinct from British and North American popular music genres but similar to each other.

Electra is a circa 420-410 BCE play by Sophocles,translated in  1870 by R.C.Jebb.Electra,who is in mourning for her dead father and her long-absent brother,is aware of the intensity of her grief but believes it to be justified:              

 

Which quotation from Electra most effectively illustrates the claim?

• A.“O thou pure sunlight,and thou air,earth's canopy,how often have ye heard the strains of my lament,the wild blows dealt against this bleeding breast,when dark night fails!”

• B.“I know my own passion,it escapes me not;but,seeing that the causes are so dire,will never curb these frenzied plaints,while life is in me.”

• C.“Send to me my brother;for I have no more the strength to bear up alone against the load of grief that weighs me down."

• D.“But never will I cease from dirge and sore lament,while I look on the trembling rays of the bright stars,or on this light of day."

Several studies of sediment (e.g.,dirt,pieces of rock,etc.)in streams have shown an inverse correlation between sediment grain size and downstream distance from the primary sediment source,suggesting that stream length has a sorting effect on sediment.In a study of sediment sampled at more than a dozen sites in Alpine streams,however,geologists Camille Litty and Fritz Schlunegger found that cross-site variations in grain size were not associated with differences in downstream distance,though they did not conclude that downstream distance is irrelevant to grain size.Rather,they concluded that sediment influx in these streams may have been sufficiently spatially diffuse to prevent the typical sorting effect from being observed.

 

Which finding about the streams in the study,if true,would most directly support Litty and Schlunegger's conclusion?

• A.The streams contain several types of sediment that are not typically found in streams where the sorting effect has been demonstrated.

• B.The streams are fed by multiple tributaries that carry significant volumes of sediment and that enter the streams downstream of the sampling sites.

• C.The streams mostly originate from the same source,but their lengths vary considerably due to the different courses they take.

• D.The streams regularly experience portions of their banks collapsing into the water at multiple points upstream of the sampling sites.

“Valia”is a 1907 short story by Leonid Andreyev.In the story,the author emphasizes that the setting where the character Valia is reading is nearly silent:              

 

Which quotation from “Valia”most effectively illustrates the claim?

• A.“Valia approached the window and examined the toys.”

• B."Valia was reading a huge,very huge book,almost half as large as himself."

• C.“Everything in the room was quiet,so quiet that the only thing to be heard was the rustling of the pages he turned."

• D."The hand in which he carried his book was getting stiff with cold,but he would not ask his mother to take the book from him."

A member of the Otomi,an Indigenous people in Central Mexico,Octavio Medellín immigrated to  the United States as a child,and his sculpture bears the impress of traditions on both sides of the border:US  based  modernist   sculpture,Mexican  modernist  painting,Otomi   art,and  the   ancient sculpture   of   other    Mexican    Indigenous    peoples,   including    the    Mava.    In    his     1950 masterpiece History of Mexico,Medellínfuses these influences into a style so idiosyncratic that it resists efforts to view his work through the lens of nationality or cultural identity. Artists,he   insisted,should strive for individual expression,even as they draw inspiration from their heritage and the communities where they live and work.

 

Which quotation from an art critic most directly challenges the underlined claim in the text?

• A.“While A History of Mexico features modernist motifs,it relies primarily on angular human forms in profile—a staple of Maya sculpture—and thus invites classification as Indigenous art."

• B.“Although a number of ancient Indigenous artistic traditions pictured human forms in profile, the forms populating the surface of A History of Mexico suggest a specifically Maya influence."

• C."In A  History  of Mexico,the  synthesis  of ancient  and  modernist  traditions functions  as  a stylistic parallel to the work's subject matter:a survey of centuries of Mexican history.”

• D.“Many critics focus on Indigenous influences in A History of Mexico and other key works by Medellín to the exclusion of influences from non-Indigenous art.”

In 1534 CE,King Henry VIII of England split with the Catholic Church and declared himself head of the Church of England,in part because Pope Clement VII refused to annul his marriage to Catherine of Aragon.Two years later,Henry VIII introduced a policy titled the Dissolution of the Monasteries that by 1540 had resulted in the closure of all Catholic monasteries in England and the  confiscation  of their  estates.Some  historians  assert  that  the  enactment  of the  policy  was primarily motivated by perceived financial opportunities.

 

Which quotation from a scholarly article best supports the assertion of the historians mentioned in the text?

• A.“At the time of the Dissolution of the Monasteries,about 2 percent of the adult male population of England were monks;by  1690,the proportion of the adult male population who were monks was less than 1 percent."

• B."In  1535,the year before enacting the Dissolution of the Monasteries,Henry commissioned a survey of the value of church holdings in England—the work,performed by sheriffs,bishops,and magistrates,began that January and was swiftly completed by the summer.”

• C.“A contemporary description of the Dissolution of the Monasteries,Michael Sherbrook's Falle of the Religious Howses,recounts witness testimony that monks were allowed to keep the contents of their cells and that the monastery timber was purchased by local yeomen."

• D.“The October 1536 revolt known as the Pilgrimage of Grace had several economic motives: high food prices due to a poor harvest the prior year;the Dissolution of the Monasteries,which closed reliable sources of food and shelter for many;and rents and taxes throughout Northern England that were not merely high but predatory.”

Archaeologists have held that the Casarabe culture,which emerged in the southwestern Amazon basin in the first millennium CE,was characterized by a sparse,widely distributed population and little intervention in the surrounding wilderness.Recently,however,archaeologist Heiko Prümers and colleagues conducted a study of the region using remote-sensing technology that enabled them to create three-dimensional images of the jungle-covered landscape from above,and the researchers concluded that the Casarabe people developed a form of urbanism in the Amazon basin.

 

Which finding about the remote-sensing images,if true,would most directly support Prümers and colleagues'conclusion?

• A.They show shapes consistent with widely separated settlements of roughly equal small size surrounded by uncultivated jungle.

• B.They show shapes consistent with long-distance footpaths running from Casarabe territories to large cities outside the region inhabited by the Casarabe people.

• C.They show shapes consistent with monumental platforms and dense central settlements linked to smaller settlements by a system of canals and roadways.

• D.They show shapes consistent with scattered small farms created by clearing jungle areas near sources of freshwater.

Jean Toomer's  1923 story“Kabnis”focuses on Ralph Kabnis,a schoolteacher experiencing a crisis  of identity.Throughout  the  story,Kabnis  is  described  in  ways  that  suggest  he  feels disconnected from his own humanity:              

 

Which quotation from “Kabnis”most effectively illustrates the claim?

• A."Night winds in Georgia are vagrant poets,whispering.Kabnis,against his will,lets his book slip down,and listens to them."

• B."He totters as a man would who for the first time uses artificial limbs.As a completely artificial man would.”

• C."His gaze drifts down into the vale,across the swamp,up over the solid dusk bank of pines, and rests,bewildered-like,on the court-house tower.It is dull silver in the moonlight.”

• D."His hand strokes the slim silk of his mustache.His thumb,pressed under his chin,seems to be trying to give squareness and projection to it.”