Each passage below is followed by questions based on its content. Answer the questions on the basis of what is stated or implied in each passage and in any introductory material that may be provided.
Questions 6-7 are based on the following passage.
The critic Edmund Wilson was not a self-conscious letter writer or one who tied to sustain studied mannerisms. Nor did he resort to artifice or entangle himself in circumlocutions. The young, middle-aged, and old Wilson 5 speaks directly through his letters, which are informal for the most part and which undisguisedly reflect his changing moods. On occasion~in response, perhaps, to the misery of a friend or a public outrage or a personal challenge-he can become eloquent, even passionate, but that is not his 10 prevailing tone.
6. Based on the information in the passage, Wilson’s letters can best be described as
(A) cynical
(B) spontaneous
(C) critical
(D) preachy
(E) witty ‘
7. The reference to the "young, middle-aged, and old Wilson" (line 4) serves to suggest the
(A) multifaceted nature of Wilson’s literary persona
(B) maturity Wilson displayed even as a youth
(C) effect aging had on Wilson’s temperament
(D) longevity of Wilson’s literary career
(E) consistency of Wilson’s letter-writing style
Questions 8-9 are based on the following passage.
The belief that it is harmful to the Black community for authors to explore the humanity of our leaders can have troubling effects. At the least, it promotes the belief that our heroes have to be perfect to be useful. At worst, 5 it censors our full investigation of Black life. If our paintings of that life are stock and cramped, their colors drab and predictable, the representations of our culture are likely to be untrue. They will not capture the breadth and complexity of Black identity.
8. The passage implies that Black leaders have sometimes been portrayed as being
(A) overly sentimental
(B) deeply complex '
(C) above reproach
(D) without regret
(E) beyond understanding t
9. In context, the “paintings” (lines 5-6) are best
understood as a reference to
(A) realistic sculptures
(B) historical biographies
(C) whimsical novels
(D) political cartoons
(E) colorful theorems
Questions 10-18 are based on the following passage.
The following passage was written by a physicist in 1986.When astronomers point their telescopes to the nearest galaxy, Andromeda, they see it as it was two million years ago. That’s about the time Australopithecus* was basking in the African sun. This little bit of time travel is possible 5 because light takes two million years to make the trip from there to here. Too bad we couldn’t tum- things around and observe Earth from some cozy planet in Andromeda. But looking at light from distant objects isn’t real time travel, the in-the-flesh participation in past and future found 10 in literature. Ever since I’ve been old enough to read science fiction, I’ve dreamed of time traveling. The possibilities are staggering. You could take medicine back to fourteenth-century Europe and stop the spread of plague, or you could travel to the twenty-third century, where people take their 15 annual holidays in space stations.Being a scientist myself, I know that time travel is quite unlikely according to the laws of physics. For one thing, there would be a causality violation. If you could travel backward in time, you could alter a chain of events 20with the knowledge of how they would have turned out. Cause would no longer always precede effect. For example, you could prevent your parents from ever meeting.Contemplating the consequences of that will give you a headache. and science fiction writers for decades have 25 delighted in the paradoxes that can arise from traveling through time.
Physicists are, of course, horrified at the thought of causality violation. Differential equations for the way things should behave under a given set of forces and 30 initial conditions would no longer be valid, since what happens in one instant would not necessarily determine what happens in the next. Physicists do rely on a deterministic universe in which to operate, and time travel would almost certainly put them and most other scientists 35 permanently out of work. Still, I dream of time travel. There is something very personal about time. When the first mechanical clockswere invented, marking off time in crisp, regular intervals. it must have surprised people to discover that time 40 flowed outside their own mental and physiological processes. Body time flows at its own variable rate, oblivious to the most precise clocks in the laboratory. In fact, the human body contains its own exquisite timepieces, all with their separate rhythms. There are the alpha waves in the 45 brain; another clock is the heart. And all the while tick themysterious, ruthless clocks that regulate aging. Recently, I found my great-grandfather’s favorite pipe.Pa a Joe as he was called died more than seventy years ago, long before I was born. There are few surviving photo 50graphs or other memorabilia of Papa Joe. But I do have his pipe, which had been tucked away in a drawer somewhere for years and was in good condition when I found it. l ran a pipe cleaner through it, filled it with some tobacco I had on hand, and settled down .to read and smoke. After a cou-55 ple of minutes, the most wonderful and foreign blend of smells began wafting from the pipe. All the different occasions when Papa Joe had lit his pipe, all the different places he had been that I will never know-all had been locked up in that pipe and now poured out into the room. I was 60 vaguely aware that something had got delightfully twisted in time for a moment, skipped upward on the page. There is a kind of time travel to be had, if you don’t insist on howit happens.
* An extinct humanlike primate
10. The author mentions Australopithecus in line 3 in order to
(A) note an evolutionary progression in the physical world
(B) dramatize how different Earth was two million years ago
(C) commend the superior work of astronomers in isolating a moment early in time
(D) establish a link between the length of time that Africa has been inhabited and the discovery of the Andromeda galaxy
(E) emphasize the relatively long period of human life compared to the age of the universe
11. The statement in lines 6-7 (“Too bad . _ . Andromeda”)suggests that .
(A) scientists would like to observe events that occurred on Earth in the distant past
(B) there may be planets in Andromeda that are reachable through space travel
(C) the study of Andromeda would offer interesting comparisons to planet Earth
(D) a planet in Andromeda will be a likely observation point for Earth in the future _
(E) Andromeda is much_older than Earth
12. The author mentions “plague” (line 13) and
“space stations” (line 15) primarily to
(A) give an example of the themes of novels about time travel
(B) suggest contrasting views of the future
(C) scoff at the scientific consequences of time travel
(D) give examples of the subjects that scientists are interested in
(E) suggest why time travel is such a fascinating topic
13 The author introduces the third paragraph with the' words “Being a scientist" in order to
(A) explain an intense personal interest in the topic
(B) lend an air of authority to the discussion of time travel
(C) suggest why certain forms of literature are so appealing
(D) provoke those who defend science fiction
(E) help illustrate the term “causality violation”
14 In discussing causality violations (lines 16-35), the author addresses concerns about all of the following EXCEPT
(A) anticipatory knowledge of events
(B)the belief in a deterministic universe
(C)the mechanics of space travel
(D)cause-and-effect relationships
(E)differential equations based on known forces
15 Which of the following, if true, would undermine the validity of the author’s assumption about the impact of mechanical clocks (“When the first _ . _ the laboratory”) in lines 37-42 ?
(A) People were oblivious to time on a physical level before clocks were invented.
(B) People have always perceived time as composed of discrete, uniform intervals.
(C) Concern about time was unnecessary until clocks were invented.
(D) Mental and physiological processes are very predictable.
(E) Body time does not move at a constant rate.
16 The author mentions the brain and the heart (lines 44-45) in order to
(A) demonstrate the rhythmical qualities of timepieces
(B)explain the historical significance of mechanical clocks
(C) emphasize how the two organs interact to regulate internal rhythms
(D)illustrate the body’s different internal clocks
(E)demystify the precision of organic processes
17 The author uses the word “ruthless” (line 46) to suggest that -
(A) people are bewildered by the prospect of aging
(B) the human body has mysterious capacities
(C) some people age more rapidly than others do
(D) people’s sense of time changes as they age
(E) the process of aging is relentless
18 The author mentions that “something _ . . skipped upward on the page” (lines 60-61) to suggest that
(A) he reread a portion of the page
(B) his vision was affected by the smoke
(C) he traveled back in time in his imagination
(D) his reading reminded him of Papa Joe
(E) he believes that reading is the best way to recreate the past
Questions 19-24 are based on the following passage.
The following passage is an excerpt from a book about twentieth-century developments in art. The author refers here to the modern art that emerged shortly after the turn of the century. Many people found this art shocking. If the new art is not accessible to everyone, which certainly seems to be the case, this implies that its impulses are not of a generically human kind. It is an art not for people in general but for a special class who may not be 5 better but who are evidently different. Before we go further, one point must be clarified. What is it that the majority of people call aesthetic pleasure?
What happens in their minds when they “like” a work of art; for example, a play? The answer is easy. They like a 10 play when they become interested in the human destinies that are represented, when the love and hatred, the joys and sorrows of the dramatic personages so move them that they participate it all as though it were happening in real life.And they call a work “good” if it succeeds in creating the 15 illusion necessary to make the imaginary personages appear like living persons. In poetry the majority of people seek the passion and pain of the human being behind the poet.Paintings attract them if they find in them figures of men or women it would be interesting to meet. 20 It thus appears that to the majority of people aesthetic pleasure means a state of mind that is essentially indistinguishable from their ordinary behavior. It differs merely in accidental qualities, being perhaps less utilitarian, more intense, and free from painful consequences. But the 25 object toward which their attention and, consequently, all their other mental activities are directed is the same as in daily life: people and passions. When forced to consider artistic forms proper-for example, in some surrealistic or abstract art-most people will only tolerate them ‘if they do 30 not interfere with their perception of human fom1s and fates. As soon as purely aesthetic elements predominate and the story of John and Susie grows elusive, most people feel out of their depth and are at a loss as to what to make of the scene, the book, or the painting. A work of art 35 vanishes from sight for a beholder who seeks in that work of art nothing but the moving fate of John and Susie or Tristan and Isolde.* Unaccustomed to behaving in any mode except the practical one in which feelings are aroused and emotional involvement ensues, most people are unsure 40 how to respond to a work that does not invite sentimental intervention. Now this is a point that has to be made perfectly clear.
Neither grieving nor rejoicing at such huma.n destinies as those presented by a work of an begins to define tme 45 artistic pleasure; indeed, preoccupation with the human content of the work is in principle incompatible with aesthetic enjoyment proper.
* Tristan and Isolde were star-crossed lovers in a medieval romance.
19 The passage is primarily concerned with the
(A) lives artists lead as opposed to the ones they imagine
(B)emotional impact of a painting’s subject matter
(C)nature of the pleasure that most people find in a work of art
(D) wide variety of responses that audiences have to different works of art
(E) contrast between the formal elements of the new art and those of the old
20 As used in line 18, “figures” most nearly means
(A) crude images
(B) abstractions
(C) representations
(D) numbers
(E) famous persons
21 It is most likely that “the story of John and Susie” (line 32) refers to
(A) a fictional work that the author will proceed to critique
(B) a typical narrative of interpersonal relationships
(C) an account of an affair in the form of a mystery
(D) a legendary couple that has fascinated artists through the ages
(E) a cryptic chronicle of renowned historical personages '
22The author suggests that the majority of people resist modern art because they
(A) consider modem artists to be elitist
(B) are too influenced by critics to view the art on its own merits
(C) are annoyed by its social message
(D) find in it little of human interest to engage them
(E) find it too difficult to guess at the artist’s source of inspiration
23 The author’s attitude toward the majority of people can best be described as
(A)genuinely puzzled
(B)aggressively hostile
(C)solemnly respectful
(D)generally indifferent
(E)condescendingly tolerant
24 The author’s assumption in the final paragraph
(lines 42-47) is that
(A) aesthetic pleasure is a response to the purely artistic elements in a work of art
(B) aesthetic enjoyment of a work of art must focus on the artist’s intentions as much as on the artist’s actual accomplishments '
(C) responses to a work of art vary and cannot be easily defined
(D) the evocation of emotional responses by a traditional work of art depends on the moral conventions of the artist’s society
(E) the majority of people trying to interpret a work of art will concentrate on the artistic technique