GRE GRE Certifications GRE-TEST Questions & Answers

• Question 41:

  In 1995 the United States National Park Service reintroduced wolves into Yellowstone National Park, from which they had been eliminated decades before by overhunting. Biologists hoped the reintroduction would return the park's mix of animals to a more natural state. After the wolves* disappearance, the population of their onetime prey, the elk. had burgeoned. Subsequently, new tree growth declined as multiplying elk browsed young trees, denuding certain areas of the park. Following the wolves" return, the elk population declined and young trees rebounded. Most scientists attribute the vegetation changes to the wolves" return. However. Patton observes that Yellowstone has not had a harsh winter since wolf numbers reached high levels and suggests that elk may not have needed to resort to trees for food.

  If the view attributed to the majority of scientists is correct, which of the following must be true?

  A. The elk population in Yellowstone had probably begun to decline prior to the reintroduction of wolves to the park.

  B. Browsing by species other than elk probably had a significant impact on young trees in Yellowstone.

  C. Human activity contributed both to the decline and to the resurgence of new tree growth in Yellowstone.

  D. The reintroduction of wolves to Yellowstone has had negative as well as positive effects on vegetation in the park.

  E. The rate at which young trees rebounded in Yellowstone following the reintroduction of wolves was in part due to weather patterns.

  Correct Answer: C

• Question 42:

  Ultimately the ethical implications of neuroscieuce may be (i)_________than those of genetics. The transformations of behavior possible by manipulating neurons are both more predictable and more thorough than what can be achieved by altering genes. Even if the ethical and practical constraints on genetic experimentation suddenly (ii)_________- we'd have to wait decades to see the outcome of such experiments. Altering the brain's functioning, by contrast, can produce startlingly (iii)_________results.

  A. even more troubling

  B. more difficult to understand

  C. much less interesting

  D. solidified

  E. surfaced

  F. vanished

  G. unexpected

  H. rapid

  I. far-reaching

  Correct Answer: CFH

• Question 43:

  When Flemish painter Anthony Van Dyck moved to England in 1632 to become court painter to Charles The introduced an entirely new way of representing dress in portraiture. In women's portraits. he left off fashionable accessories, depicted subjects in unbuttoned sleeves and collars, and added lavish drapery and jewels. For the first time an artist actively participated in dressing his subjects, creating an amalgam of fantasy and reality. While Van Dyck was most innovative when representing women, he used similar elements in portraits of men.

  Van Dyck's Portrait of Thomas Killigrew and Willian. Lord Crofts (1638) demonstrates how the artist relaxed and unbuttoned men's dress to accord with an underlying theme. The double portrait may be seen as an essay in grief: Killigrew. a poet and playwright, had lost his wife Cecelia to the plague shortly before the sitting, and Crofts was her nephew. The painting contains clear references to the situation at hand. The background features a broken column, a traditional emblem of earthly transience. A drawing in Killigrew's right hand depicts two Itinerary monuments. Crofts holds a blank sheet of paper, seen by some scholars as an analog to the drawing Killigrew holds: a symbol of what is gone. At historians have interpreted the clothing depicted in this portrait, particularly Crofts' doublet which is worn unbuttoned in back, as an allusion to the subjects' grief-stricken distraction. It is true that Killigrew's dress includes references to his loss--he wears a cross inscribed with his wife's initials. There is an intimate nature to this painting, which seems underscored by the loose clothing worn by both subjects. However, diis reading of the costumes as signs of grief does not take account of seventeenth-century fashion conventions. Only Killigrew appears in noticeably disheveled attire;

  Crofts" dress would be quite appropriate for a formal portrait. Though black clothing, such as that won by Crofil, was common for mourning, it was also ordinary on other occasions. Furthermore, during the first stage of mounting no shiny surfaces, such as Crofts' satin doublet, would be permitted. The unbuttoned slit on Crofts" doublet was probably a matter of style: a French courtier in a 1635 fashion print by Bosse. who is gallivanting rather than grieving, wears a similarly undone doublet. Evidence suggests that by the late 1630s a certain calculated looseness was conventional in men's formal dress. Ribeiro. for example, cites the writings of moralists objecting to this style.

  Killigrew's attire, though even looser than Crofts", should not necessarily be associated with grief. Other seventeenth-century subjects depicted in melancholic states do not dress this way. Although Killigrew's "undress" lends this portrait a distinctive intimacy, it might also refer to Killigrew's literary career. Many of Van Dyck's other subjects who engaged in literary pursuits are depicted in loose clothing. The blank sheet held by Crofts may be a reminder not only of Killigrew's loss but also of his solace: he had but to express his grief in writing.

  Which of the following best describes (he function of the last sentence of the passage?

  A. It suggests that a certain detail of the painting should not be understood ;is emblematic.

  B. It calls attention to a detail of the painting that art historians have generally overlooked.

  C. It offers support for the author's interpretation of the significance of Killigrew's clothing.

  D. It introduces evidence to support the author's view of the appropriateness of Crofts" manner of dress.

  E. It casts doubt on the way that art historians have interpreted the? relationslup between the two subjects in the painting.

  Correct Answer: A

• Question 44:

  Adapting to its changing environment and building its own ecological niche in interactions with other disciplines, the scientific discipline of ecology can be seen as highly_________.

  A. anarchic

  B. cerebral

  C. opportunistic

  D. speculative

  E. competitive

  Correct Answer: C

• Question 45:

  In the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries, during the period of the American Revolution and the early republic, political poems appeared regularly in newspapers and pamphlets. commenting on the issues and controversies engaging the new nation. Given the sheer number of poems that engaged explicitly with politics, one might wonder why the form has remained largely ignored by scholars of early American literature even as many other once obscure forms-sentimental novels, diaries, travelogues, belles letters--have enjoyed unprecedented scholarly interest in recent decades. Part of the reason may stem from frustrations involved with reading poems that are so highly topical--often requiring, even as a condition of first-level comprehension, a familiarity with names and references that, while wholly recognizable in their own time, are obscure to modem readers. Yet beyond this is the fact that American political verse from the eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries has never fully shaken off the verdict, delivered by its earliest generation of scholarly readers. that it is simply unworthy of serious attention as literature. Even the term commonly used to describe it--"verse." as opposed to "poetry"-- suggests an occasional or forgettable, rather than enduring, form of expression, not quite deserving the designation of poetry. Nor was such verse considered by early critics as worthy of the designation "American." as the tendency of eighteenth-century American poets to model their works on those of British precursors suggested an unforgivable failure, as one critic described it. to declare their "literary independence" from Britain. In the context in which it appears highlighted, "obscure" most nearly means

  A. dark

  B. unexamined

  C. ambiguous

  D. indistinct

  E. disreputable

  Correct Answer: B

• Question 46:

  One reason researchers have long believed that Mars never enjoyed an extensive period of warm and wet climate is that much of the surface not covered by wind-borne dust appears to be composed of unweathered material. If water flowed for an extended period, researchers reasoned, it should have altered and weathered the volcanic minerals, creating clays or other oxidized, hydrated phases (minerals that incorporate water molecules in their crystal structure).

  It turns out. though, that the scientists were not looking closely enough. New high- resolution mapping data and close-up surface studies have revealed clays and other hydrated minerals in many regions The clay deposits are scattered all over, in ancient volcanic surfaces and heavily cratered highland regions, some of which have apparently been exposed by erosion only recently.

  Consider each of the choices separately and select all that apply.

  The passage indicates which of the following about the clay deposits an Mars?

  A. They are widely distributed.

  B. They are not the only hydrated minerals on Mars.

  C. They have only recently been detected.

  Correct Answer: ABC

• Question 47:

  The notion that scientists consider the work they do to be (i)_________contradicts popular stereotypes that depict the work of scientists (and the scientists themselves) as being formal and rigid, following lockstep procedures in which the (ii) _________elements of researchers' personalities fail to enter their labors.

  A. socially useful

  B. affective

  C. emotionally satisfying

  D. cognitive

  E. intellectually demanding

  F. conjectural

  Correct Answer: BE

• Question 48:

  Discussions of the collapse of the lowland Maya are not new. However, it might be better to say that Maya civilization as a whole did not collapse, although many zones did experience profound change. Because societies are not bounded, unitary entities. collapses are rarely total, and continuity is a normal part of collapse. At the end of the Classic period [200-900C.E.]. the institution of divine kingship and many of the well-known markers of elite culture such as caned slelae [slabs erected for funerals or commemorative purposes] and hieroglyphic polychromes [multicolored artistic pottery] ended, but Maya civilization continued in modified form with many important features intact (e.g.. literacy, war. art. the production of fine ceramics). In some cases large buildings were constructed in the Postclassic period [900-1512 C.E.], but the transition to the Early Postclassic [900-1200 CXj era is distinctive for a decrease in elite goods and contexts. The variability in artifact changes during the Terminal Classic [800-900 C.E.] and into the Postclassic. even within artifact classes (e.g., fine versus unslipped ceramics), suggests weaker centralized control than during the Classic period. Site abandonments in the Terminal Classic indicate the collapse of the functional ability of Maya states, but sites that survived show that Maya civilization continued albeit without divine kingship and much of the spectacle around it. The author would most likely characterize the claim that Maya civilization collapsed as

  A. equivocal

  B. truislic

  C. overstated

  D. delusional

  E. mendacious

  Correct Answer: C

• Question 49:

  Scholars generally estimate subscribers to Freedom s Journal (1827-1829), the United States" first African American newspaper, at around 800. based on subscriptions to the Rights of AIL an African American newspaper founded in 1829 as a successor to Freedom s Journal by a former editor of that newspaper. But Gross argues that many more than 800 readers probably subscribed to Freedom s Journal because many of its subscribers, dissatisfied with the direction ultimately taken by the paper, refused to subscribe to the Rights of All. In any case, the figure of 800 subscribers would make the circulation of Freedom s Journal close to that of other weekly papers of the time Its number of readers, however, would have been much larger: copies were often shared. and African American organizations subscribed to Freedom s Journal, providing nonsubscribers access to the paper

  African American organizations' subscriptions to Freedom s Journal are mentioned in the passage primarily in order to.

  A. dispute Gross's claim about the probable number of readers of Freedom S Journal

  B. identify the primary subscribers to both Freedom s Journal and The Rights of All

  C. help account for a possible difference between the number of subscribers to Freedom s Journal and to The Rights of All.

  D. cite a factor that casts doubt on most scholars assumptions about the number of subscribers to Freedom $ Journal

  E. illustrate why the readership numbers for Freedom s Journal should be distinguished from the subscription numbers

  Correct Answer: B

• Question 50:

  Iii recent years ii has become common for industrial workers who do heavy lifting to wear special wide leather belts that are advertised as reducing back strain. However, physiologists doubt that these belts actually reduce back strain. In fact the belts must put additional strain on the back, since records of injuries to industrial workers show that people wearing the belts were significantly more likely to suffer a back injury than were others doing the same job.

  Which of die following, if true, most strengthens the argument?

  A. The special belts were first popularized by recreational weight lifters.

  B. For more than a decade, the overall rate of back injuries among industrial workers has been increasing.

  C. Because of changes in federal safety regulations, records of worker injuries have become much more comprehensive in recent years.

  D. In recent years the length of the average workweek--measured in hours--has increased dramatically for industrial workers who do heavy lifting.

  E. Those workers who chose to wear the special belts always tended to follow proper safety practices on the job.

  Correct Answer: B