GWD3-Q5 to Q7:
In 1994, a team of scientists led by David Mckay began studying the meteorite ALH84001, which had been discovered in Antarctica in 1984. Two years later, the McKay team announced that ALH84001, which scientists generally agree originated on Mars, contained compelling evidence that life once existed on Mars. This evidence includes the discovery of organic molecules in ALH84001, the first ever found in Martian rock. Organic molecules—complex, carbonbased compounds—form the basis for terrestrial life. The organic molecules found in ALH84001 are polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons, or PAH’s. When microbes die, their organic material often decays into PAH’s.
Skepticism about the McKay team’s claim remains, however. For example, ALH84001 has been on earth for 13,000 years, suggesting to some scientists that its PAH’s might have resulted form terrestrial contamination. However, McKay’s team has demonstrated that the concentration of PAH’s increases as one looks deeper into ALH84001, contrary to what one would expect from terrestrial contamination. The skeptic’s strongest argument, however, is that processes unrelated to organic life can easily produce all the evidence found by McKay’ s team, including PAH’s. For example, star formation produces PAH’s. Moreover, PAH’s frequently appear in other meteorites, and no one attributes their presence to life processes. Yet McKay’s team notes that the particular combination of PAH’s in ALH84001 is more similar to the combinations produced by decaying organisms than to those originating form nonbiological processes.
Q5: The passage asserts which of the following about the claim that ALH84001 originated on Mars?
A. It was initially proposed by the McKay team of scientists.
B. It is not a matter of widespread scientific dispute.
C. It has been questioned by some skeptics of the McKay team’s work.
D. It has been undermined by recent work on PAH’s.
E. It is incompatible with the face that ALH84001 has been on Earth for 13,000 years.
Q6: The primary purpose of the passage is to
A. describe new ways of studying the possibility that life once existed on Mars
B. revise a theory regarding the existence of life on Mars in light of new evidence
C. reconcile conflicting viewpoints regarding the possibility that life once existed on Mars
D. evaluate a recently proposed argument concerning the origin of ALH84001
E. describe a controversy concerning the significance of evidence from ALH84001
Q7: The passage suggests that the fact that ALH84001 has been on earth for 13,000 years has been used by some scientists to support which of the following claims about ALH84001?
A. ALH84001 may not have originated on Mars.
B. ALH84001 contains PAH’s that are the result of nonbiological processes.
C. ALH84001 may not have contained PAH’s when it landed on Earth.
D. The organic molecules found in ALH84001 are not PAH’s.
E. The organic molecules found in ALH84001 could not be the result of terrestrial contamination.
GWD3-Q8:
Which of the following most logically completes the passage?
Garnet and RenCo each provide health care for their employees. Garnet pays for both testing of its employees’ cholesterol levels and treatment of high cholesterol. This policy saves Garnet money, since high cholesterol left untreated for many years leads to conditions that require very expensive treatment. However, RenCo dose not have the same financial incentive to adopt such a policy, because ______.
A. early treatment of high cholesterol dose not entirely eliminate the possibility of a stroke later in life
B. the mass media regularly feature stories encouraging people to maintain diets that are low in cholesterol
C. RenCo has significantly more employees than Garnet has
D. RenCo’s employees are unlikely to have higher cholesterol levels than Garnet’s employees
E. the average length of time an employee stays with RenCo is less than it is with Garnet
GWD3-Q9:
Studies in restaurants show that the tips left by customers who pay their bill in cash tend to be larger when the bill is presented on a tray that bears a credit-card logo. Consumer psychologists hypothesize that simply seeing a credit-card logo makes many credit-card holders willing to spend more because it reminds them that their spending power exceeds the cash they have immediately available.
Which of the following, if true, most strongly supports the psychologists’ interpretation of the studies?
A. The effect noted in the studies is not limited to patrons who have credit cards.
B. Patrons who are under financial pressure from their credit-card obligations tend to tip less when presented with a restaurant bill on a tray with credit-card logo than when the tray has no logo.
C. In virtually all of the cases in the studies, the patrons who paid bills in cash did not possess credit cards.
D. In general, restaurant patrons who pay their bills in cash leave larger tips than do those who pay by credit card.
E. The percentage of restaurant bills paid with given brand of credit card increases when that credit card’s logo is displayed on the tray with which the bill is prepared.
GWD3-Q10:
Antarctica receives more solar radiation than does any other place on Earth, yet the temperatures are so cold and the ice cap is reflective, so that little polar ice melts during the summer; otherwise, the water levels of the oceans would rise 250 feet and engulf most of the world’s great cities.
A. is reflective, so that little polar ice melts during the summer; otherwise,
B. is so reflective that little of the polar ice melts during the summer; were it to do so,
C. so reflective that little polar ice melts during the summer, or else
D. reflective, so that little of the polar ice melts during the summer, or
E. reflects so that little of the polar ice melts during the summer; if it did
GWD3-Q11:
Retailers reported moderate gains in their November sales, as much because of their sales of a year earlier being so bad as that shoppers were getting a head start on buying their holiday gifts.
A. of their sales of a year earlier being so bad as that
B. of their sales a year earlier having been as bad as because
C. of their sales a year earlier being as bad as because
D. their sales a year earlier had been so bad as because
E. their sales of a year earlier were as bad as that
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