GRE GRE Certifications GRE-TEST Questions & Answers

• Question 11:

  Although technically their members were hunter-gatherers, many early Native California communities exhibited traits more typically associated with well-developed agrarian societies and. therefore, are often presented in the ethnographic literature as________.

  A. archaic

  B. pragmatic

  C. anomalous

  D. exemplary

  E. exceptional

  F. utilitarian

  Correct Answer: CE

• Question 12:

  The snow-covered surface of the lake presents a reassuring illusion of________. but beneath the snow the ice is riven with treacherous cracks.

  A. uniformity

  B. isolation

  C. seclusion

  D. protection

  E. substantiality

  F. soundness

  Correct Answer: DE

• Question 13:

  Sunflower sea slurs help maintain certain kelp forest ecosystems by eating quickly reproducing prey species such as urchins, thus keeping populations low. Without the sea stars, the urchin population explodes, which is bad news for kelp forests and everything in them. Giant kelp can grow to 150 feet underwater at a speed of two feet a day. but their weaknesses are their holdfasts. which are akin to tree roots. The holdfasts are home to brittle stars, prawns, and snails, among other creatures. Urchins like to eat the kelp holdfasts. Once the holdfasts are gone, the rest of the kelp drifts oft* in the tides. In this way. urchins can destroy the forests, which, higher up. are also home to fish, including several types of commercially important rockfish.

  According to the passage, sea urchin populations

  A. often drift in the tide along with sea kelp

  B. are a favored prey of certain commercially important fish

  C. sometimes prey on commercially important fish species

  D. can damage the habitats where brittle stars live

  E. reproduce most rapidly in holdfasts of kelp forests

  Correct Answer: D

• Question 14:

  Ii is irue lhal science, and more particularly scientists._________cherished paradigms with great reluctance and that when they do. scientific revolutions may result.

  A. unify

  B. share

  C. cede

  D. embrace

  E. dismantle

  F. relinquish

  Correct Answer: CF

• Question 15:

  Female Australian Dunalothrips [small, sap-sucking insects] create tent-like structures on the surface of leaves to protect themselves and their eggs and larvae from desiccation in the arid Australian climate. Bono and Crespi compared survival and reproduction of thrips that founded structures alone with those in groups of two or more individuals. They found that although per capita egg production fell with increasing group size, foundresses were more likely to survive and lay eggs in groups than when alone. Several studies of other species of nest-building insects have concluded that foundress associations are beneficial to all panics. It is likely that the relative success of groups is at least in part accounted for by a reduction of energy use in the modification of a shared nest.

  The author suggests which of the following about the "reduction of energy use"?

  A. It may be beneficial enough to insects to offset a decrease in per capita egg production.

  B. It has been shown to occur primarily in species of insects that live in arid climates.

  C. Its negative consequences for insect eggs and larvae are outweighed by other, more advantageous effects.

  D. Its magnitude is most likely smaller than suggested by some early research studies on insect reproduction.

  E. It may help insects to regulate egg production in groups that reach a certain population density.

  Correct Answer: A

• Question 16:

  Even the most complex models used in fishery management are cartoons of reality. They reduce hundreds of links in food webs to a handful and inadequately represent processes operating over space. Many of their assumptions are as flawed today as those of the simplest models of the past. Fish stocks, for one. are still assumed to be populations of a species that are isolated from one another. Yet many populations mix at their edges and some even migrate through areas occupied by other populations. Furthermore, the more complex models suffer from a "crisis of complexity"--more is really less. Adding layers of detail, each carrying its own set of assumptions, produces instability. The model's behavior becomes erratic, and conclusions drawn from it can be downright misleading.

  In the context of the passage, the highlighted portion serves to A. confirm a prediction

  B. demonstrate an oversimplification

  C. recommend a reformulation

  D. anticipate an objection

  E. question a finding

  Correct Answer: B

• Question 17:

  The (i)_________between the scholar's arguments and their (ii)_________has long been evident: the arguments

  claim that we live in a world of rhetoric and contingency, but the arguer presents her claim as anything but rhetorical and contingent.

  A. contradiction

  B. progression

  C. manage

  D. moans of dispatch

  E. critical reception

  F. lack of absolutism

  Correct Answer: AD

• Question 18:

  Recent studies of the gender gap in the history of United States politics tend to focus on candidate choice rather than on registration and turnout. This shift in focus away from gender inequality in political participation may be due to the finding in several studies of voting behavior in the United States that since 1980. differences in rates of registration and voting between men and women are not statistically significant after controlling for traditional predictors of participation. However. Fullerton and Stern argue that researchers have overlooked the substantial gender gap in registration and voting in the South. While the gender gap in participation virtually disappeared outside the South by the 1950s, substantial gender differences persisted in the South throughout the 1950s and 1960s, only beginning to decline in the 1970s.

  The passage is primarily concerned with

  A. establishing the chronology of a transition

  B. discussing a perceived oversight

  C. explaining the reasons for a change

  D. evaluating an underlying assumption

  E. confirming the merits of a claim

  Correct Answer: C

• Question 19:

  Despite the (i)_________nature of contemporary science, the (ii)_________of many individuals (iii)_________: the work of women and minority scientists has too often been exploited or deemed rudimentary and unworthy of inclusion into science history books.

  A. collaborative

  B. controversial

  C. sophisticated

  D. motivations

  E. contributions

  F. idiosyncrasies

  G. manifest themselves

  H. point to a solution

  I. remain overlooked

  Correct Answer: AEI

• Question 20:

  Recent research has questioned the long-standing view of pearly mussels as exclusively suspension feeders (animals that strain suspended particles from water) that subsist on phytoplankton (mostly algae). Early studies of mussel feeding were based on analyses of gut contents, a method that has three weaknesses. First, material in mucus-bound gut contents is difficult to identify and quantify. Second, material found in the gut may pass undigested out of the mussel, not contributing to its nutrition. Finally, examination of gut contents offers limited insight into the mechanisms and behaviors by which mussels acquire food. Modem studies suggest that pearly mussels feed on more than just algae and may use other means than suspension feeding. Pedal feeding (sweeping up edible material with a muscular structure called the foot) has been observed in juvenile pearly mussels.

  Besides the phytoplankton pearly mussels capture from the water column, their guts also contain small animals, protozoans, and detritus (nonliving particulate organic material). Recent studies show that mussels can capture and assimilate bacteria as well, a potentially important source of food in many fresh waters. Another potential source of food for mussels is dissolved organic matter. Early studies showing that pearly mussels could take up simple organic compounds were largely discounted because such labile (unstable) compounds are rarely abundant in nature. Nevertheless, recent work on other bivalves suggests that dissolved organic matter may be a significant source of nutrition.

  Of this complex mix of materials that pearly mussels acquire, what is actually required and assimilated? Stable-isotope analyses of mussels taken from nature and of captive-reared mussels are beginning to offer some insight into this question. Nichols and Garling showed that pearly mussels in a small river were omnivorous, subsisting mainly on particles less than 2S micrometers in diameter, including algae, detritus, and bacteria. Bacterially derived carbon was apparently the primary source of soft-tissue carbon. However, bacteria alone cannot support mussel growth, because they lack the necessary long-chain fatty acids and sterols and are deficient in some amino acids. Bacteria may supplement other food resources, provide growth factors, or be the primary food In habitats such as headwater streams, where phytoplankton is scarce. Juvenile mussels have been most successfully reared m the laboratory on diets containing algae high in polyunsaturated fatty acids. Thus, it appears that the pearly mussel diet in nature may consist of algae, bacteria, detritus, and small animals and that at least some algae and bacteria may be required as a source of essential biochemicals.

  The passage mentions which of the following as a factor that limits the information researchers can glean from analyzing gut contents?

  A. Mussels may ingest material that is not essential to their nutrition.

  B. The mechanisms mussels use to acquire food are not well understood.

  C. Juvenile mussels are able to acquire edible material through pedal feeding.

  D. Mussels appear to feed on more than one kind of food.

  E. Captive-reared mussels ingest substances that wild mussels do not eat.

  Correct Answer: D