section iv
time-35 minutes
27 questions
directions: each passage in this section is followed by a group of questions to be answered on the basis of what is stated or implies in the passage for some of the questions more than one of the choices could conceivably answer the question. however you are to choose the best answer that is the response that most accurately and completely answers the question and blacken the corresponding space on your answer sheet
three kinds of study have been performed on byron. there is the biographical study-the very valuable examination of byron's psychology and the events in his life. escarpit's 1958 work is an example
(5) of this kind of study and biographers to this day continue to speculate about byron's life. equally valuable is the study of byron as a figure important in the history of ideas; russell and prza have written studies of this kind. finally, there are
(10)studies that primarily consider byron's poetry. such inerary studies are valuable however only when they avoid concentrating solely on analyzing the verbal shadings of byron's poetry to the exclusion of any discussion of biographical considerations. a
(15)study with such a concentration would be of questionable value because byron's poetry, for the most part, is simply not a poetry of subtle verbal most part, is simply not a poetry of subtle verbal meanings. rather, on the whole, byron's poerns record the emotional pressure of certain moments
(20)in his life. i believe we cannot often read a poem of bvron's we often can one of shakespeare's without wondering what events or circumstances in his life prompted him to write it.
no doubt the fact that most of byron's poems
(25)cannot be convincingly read as subtle verbal creations indicates that byron is not a "great" poet. it must be admitted too that byron's literary craftsmanship is irregular and often his temperament disrupts even his lax literrary method
(30)(although the result an absence of method has a significant purpose: it functions as a rebuke to a cosmos that byron feels he cannot understand). if byron is not a "great" poet his poetry is nonetheless of extrtaordinary interest to us because
(35)of the pleasure it gives us: our main pleasure in reading byron's poetry is the contact with a singular personality. reading his work gives us illumination-self-understanding-after we have seen our weaknesses and aspirations mirrored in
(40)the personality we usually find in the poems. anyone who thinks that this kind of illumination is not a genuine reason for reading a poet should think carefully about why we read donne's sonnets.
it is byron and byron's idea of himself that hold
(45)his work together (and that enthralled early nineteenth-century europe different characters speak in his poems, but finally it is usually he himself who is speaking a far cry from the impersonal poet keats. byron's poetry alludes to)
(50)greek and roman myth in the context of contemporary affairs, but his work remains generally of a piece because of his close presence in the poetry. in sum, the poetry is a shrewd personal performance, and to shut out byron the man is to
(55)fabricate a work of pseudocriticism.
1.which one of the following titles best expresses the main idea of the passage?
(a) an absence of method. why byron is not a "great" poet
(b) byron: the recurring presence in byron's poetry
(c) personality and poetry. the biographical dimension of nineteenth-century poetty
(d) byron's poetry: its influence on the imagination of early-nineteenth-century europe
(e) verbal shadings: the fatal flaw of twentieth-century literary criticism
2. the author's mention of russell and praz serves primarily to
(a) differentiate them from one another
(b) contrast their conclusions about byron with those of escarptt
(c) point out the writers whose studies suggest a new direction for byron scholarship
(d) provide examples of writers who have written one kind of study of byron
(e) give credit to the writers who have composed the best studies of byrson
3.which one of the following would the author most likely consider to be a valuable study of byron?
(a) a study that compared byron's poetic style with keats' poetic style
(b) a study that argued that byron's thought ought not to be analyzed in terms of its importance in the history of ideas
(c) a study that sought to identify the emotions felt by byron at a particular time in his life
(d) a study in which a literary critic argues that the language of byron's poetry was more subtle than that of keat's poetry
(e) a study in which a literary critic drew on experiences from his or her own life
4.which one of the following statements best describes the organization of first paragraph of the passage?
(a) a generalization is made and then gradually refuted
(b) a number of theories are discussed and then the author chooses the most convincing one
(c) several categories are mentioned and then one category is discussed in some detail
(d) a historical trend is delineated and then a prediction about the future of the trend is offered
(e) a classification is made and then a rival classification is substituted in its place
5.the author mentions that "byron's literary craftsmanship is irregular" (lines 27-28) most probably in order to
(a) contrast byron's poetic skill with that of shakespeare
(b) dismiss craftsmanship as a standard by which to judge poets
(c) offer another reason why byron is not a "great" poet
(d) pornt out a negative consequence of byron's belief that the cosmos is mcomprehensible
(e) mdicate the most-often-cited explanation of why byron's poetry lacks subtle verbal nuances
6.according to the autohor shakespeare's poems differ from byron's in that shakespeare's poems
(a) have elicited a wider variety of responses from both literary critics and biographers
(b) are on the whole less susceptible to being read as subtle verbal creations
(c) do not grow out of or are not motivated by actual events or circumstances in the poet's life
(d) provide the attentive reader with a greater degree of illumination concerning his or her own weaknesses and aspirations
(e) can often be read without the reader's being curious about what biographical factors motivated the poet to write them
7.the author indicates which one of the following about biographers speculation concerning byron's life?
(a) such speculation began in earnest with escarpit's study
(b) such speculation continues today
(c) such speculation is less important than consideration of byron's poetry
(d) such speculation has not given us a satisfactory sense of byron's life
(e) such speculation has been carried out despite the objections of literary critics
8.the passage supplies specific information that provides a definitive answer to which one of the following questions?
(a) what does the author consider to be the primary enjoyment derived from reading byron?
(b) who among literary critics has primarily studied byron's poems?
(c) which moments in byron's life exerted the greatest pressure on his poetry?
(d) has byron ever been considered to be a "great" poet?
(e) did byron exert an influence on europeans in the latter part of the nineteenth century?
the united states supreme court has not always resolved legal issues of concern to native americans in a manner that has pleased the indian nations. many of the court's decisions have been
(5) products of political compromise that looked more to the temper of the times than to enduring principles of law. but accommodation is part of the judicial system in the united states, and judicial decisions must be assessed with this fact in mind.
(10)despite the "accommodating" nature of the judicial system, it is worth noting that the power of the supreme court has been exercised in a manner that has usually been beneficial to native americans, at least on minor issues and has not
(15)been wholly detrimental on the larger, more important issues. certainly there have been decisions that cast doubt on the validity of this assertion. some critics point to the patronizing tone of many court opinions and the apparent rejection
(20)of native american values as important points to consider when reviewing a case. however the validity of the assertion can be illustrated by reference to two important contributions that have resulted from the exercise of judicial power.
(25) first the court has created rules of judicial construction that in general favor the rights of native american litigants. the court's attitude has been conditioned by recognition of the distinct disadvantages native americans faced when
(30)dealing with settlers in the past. treaties were inevitably written in english for the benefit of their authors, whereas tribal leaders were accustomed to making treaties without any written account, on the strength of mutual promises sealed by religious
(35)commitment and individual integrity. the written treaties were often broken and native americans were confronted with fraud and native americans were confronted with fraud and political and military aggression. the court recognizes that past unfairness to native americans cannot be
(40)sanctioned by the force of law. therefore, ambiguities in treaties are to be interpreted in favor of the native american claimants treaties are to be interpreted as the native americans would have understood them and under the reserved rights
(45)doctrine treaties reserve to native americans all rights that have not been specifically granted away in other treaties.
a second achievement of the judicial system is the protection that has been provided against
(50)encroachment by the states into tribal affairs. federal judges are not inclined to view favorably efforts to extend states powers and jurisdictions because of the direct threat that such expansion poses to the exercise of federal powers. in the
(55)absence of a federal statute directly and clearly allocating a function to the states federal judges are inclined to reserve to reserve for the federal government-and powers and rights they can be said to have
(60)possessed historically
9.according to the passage, one reason why the united states supreme court "has not always resolved legal issues of concern to native americans in a manner that has pleased the indian nations" (lines 1-4) is that
(a) native americans have been prevented from presenting their concerns persuasively
(b) the court has failed to recognize that the indian nations' concerns are different from those of other groups or from those of the federal government
(c) the court has been reluctant to curtail the powers of the federal government
(d) native americans faced distinct disadvantages in dealing with settlers in the past
(e) the court has made political compromises in deciding some cases
10. it can be inferred that the objections raised by the critics mentioned in line 18 would be most clearly answered by a united states supreme court decision that
(a) demonstrated respect for native americans and the principles and qualities they consider important
(b) protected the rights of the states in conflicts with the federal government
(c) demonstrated recognition of the unfair treatment native americans received in the past
(d) reflected consideration of the hardships suffered by native americans because of unfair treaties
(e) prevented repetition of inequities experienced by native americans in the past
11. it can be inferred that the author calls the judicial system of the united states "accommodating" (line 10) primarily in order to
(a) suggest that the decisions of the united states supreme court have been less favorable to native americans than most people believe
(b) suggest that the united states supreme court should be more supportive of the goals of native americans
(c) suggest a reason why the decisions of the united states supreme court have not always favored native americans
(d) indicate that the united states supreme court has made creditable efforts to recognize the values of native americans
(e) indicate that the united states supreme court attempts to be fair to all parties to a case
12. the author's attitude toward the united states supreme court's resolution of legal issues of concern to native americans can best be described as one of
(a) wholehearted endorsement
(b) restrained appreciation
(c) detached objectivity
(d) cautious opposition
(e) suppressed exasperation
13. it can be inferred that the author believes that the extension of the states' powers and jurisdictions with respect to native american affairs would be
(a) possible only with the consent of the indian nations
(b) favorably viewed by the united states supreme court
(c) in the best interests of both state and federal governments
(d) detrimental to the interests of native americans
(e) discouraged by most federal judges in spite of legal precedents supporting the extension
14. the author's primary purpose is to
(a) contrast opposing views
(b) reevaluate traditional beliefs
(c) reconcile divergent opinions
(d) assess the claims made by disputants
(e) provide evidence to support a contention
15. it can be inferred that the author believes the united states supreme court's treatment of native americans to have been
(a) irremproachable on legal grounds
(b) reasonably supportive in most situations
(c) guided by enduring principles of law
(d) misguided but generally harmless
(e) harmful only in a few minor cases
when catastrophe strikes, analysts typically blame some combination of powerful mechanisms. an earthquake is traced to an immense instability along a fault line; a stock market crash is blamed on
(5) the destabilizing effect of computer trading. these explanations may well be correct. but systems as large and complicated as the earth's crust or the stock market can break down not only under the force of a mighty blow but also at the drop of a pin.
(10)in a large interactive system, a minor event can start a chain reaction that leads to a catastrophe.
traditionally, investigators have analyzed large interactive systems in the same way they analyze small orderly systems, mainly because the methods
(15)developed for small systems have proved so successful. they believed they could predict the behavior of a large interactive system by studying its elements separately and by analyzing its component mechanisms individually. for lack of a better
(20)theory, they assumed that in large interactive systems the response to a disturbance is proportional to that disturbance.
during the past few decades, however, it has become increasingly apparent that many large
(25)complicated systems do not yield to traditional analysis. consequently, heorists have proposed a "theory of self-organized criticality" many large interactive systems evolve naturally to a critical state in which a minor event starts a chain reaction
(30)that can affect any number of elements in the system. although such systems produce more minor events than catastrophes, the mechanism that leads to minor events is the same one that leads to major events.
(35)a deceptively simple system serves as a paradigm for self-organized criticality: a pile of sand. as sand is poured one grain at a time onto a fiat disk the grains at first stay close to the position where they land. soon they rest on top of one
(40)another creating a pile that has a gentle slope. now and then, when the lope becomes too steep the grains slide down causing a small avalanche. the system reaches its critical state when the amount of sand added is balanced; on average, by the amount
(45)falling off the edge of the disk.
now when a grain of sand is added, it can start an avalanche of any size, including a "catastrophic" event. most of the time the grain will fall so that no avalanche occurs. by studying a specific area of the
(50)pile, one can even predict whether avalanches will occur there in the near future. to such a local observer, however, large avalanches would remain unpredictable because they are a consequence of the total history of the entire pile. no matter what
(55)the local dynamics are catastrophic avalanches would persist at a relative frequency that cannot be altered: criticality is a global property of the sandpile.
16.the passage provides support for all of the following generalizations about large interactive systems except:
(a) they can evolve to a critical state.
(b) they do not always yield to traditional analysis
(c) they make it impossible for observers to make any predictions about them
(d) they are subject to the effects of chain reactions
(e) they are subject to more minor events than major events.
17. according to the passage, the criticality of a sandpile is determined by the
(a) size of the grains of sand added to the sandpile
(b) number of grains of sand the sandpile contains
(c) rate at which sand is added to the sandpile
(d) shape of the surface on which the sandpile rests
(e) balance between the amount of sand added to and the amount lost from the sandplie
18. it can be inferred from the passage that the theory employed by the investigators mentioned in the second paragraph would lead one to predict that which one of the following would result from the addition of a grain of sand to a sandpile?
(a) the grain of sand would never cause anything more than a minor disturbance
(b) the grain of sand would usually cause a minor disturbance, but would occasionally cause a small avalanche
(c) the grain of sand would usually cause either minor disturbance or a small avalanche, but would occasionally cause a catastrophic event
(d) the grain of sand would usually cause a catastrophic event, but would occasionally cause only a small avalanche or an event more minor disturbance
(e) the grain of sand would invariably cause a catastrophic event
19. which one of the following best describes the organization of the passage?
(a) a traditional procedure is described and its application to common situations is endorsed: its shortcomings in certain rare but critical circumstances are then revealed
(b) a common misconception is elaborated and its consequences are described a detailed example of one of these consequences is then given.
(c) a general principle is stated and supported by several examples; an exception to the rule is then considered and its importance evaluated
(d) a number of seemingly unrelated events are categorized: the underlying processes that connect them are then detailed
(e) a traditional method of analysis is discussed and the reasons for its adoption are explained: an alternative is then described and clarified by means of an example.
20. which one of the following is most analogous to the method of analysis employed by the investigators mentioned in the second paragraph?
(a) a pollster gathers a sample of voter preferences and on the basis of this information makes a prediction about the outcome of an election
(b) a historian examines the surviving documents detailing the history of a movement and from these documents reconstructs a chronology of the events that initiated the movement
(c) a meteorologist measures the rainfall over a certain period of the year and from this data calculates the total annual rainfall for the region.
(d) a biologist observes the behavior of one species of insect and from these observations generalizes about the behavior of insects as a class.
(e) an engineer analyzes the stability of each structural element of a bridge and from these analyses draws a conclusion about the structural soundness of the bridge.
21. in the passage, the author is primarily concerned with
(a) arguing against the abandonment of a traditional approach
(b) describing the evolution of a radical theory
(c) reconciling conflicting points of view
(d) illustrating the superiority of a new theoretical approach
(e) advocating the reconsideration of an unfashionable explanation
historians have long accepted the notion that women of english descent who lived in the english colonies of north america during the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries were better off than either
(5) the contemporary women in england or the colonists' own nineteenth-century daughters and granddaughters. the "golden age" theory originated in the 1920 with the work of elizabeth dexter who argued that there were relatively few
(10)women among the colonists, and that all hands-male and female-were needed to sustain the growing settlements. rigid sex-role distionctions could no exist under such circumstances; female colonists could accordingly engage in whatever
(15)occupations they wished encountering few legal or social constraints if they sought employment outside the home. the surplus of mate colonists also gave women crucial bargaining power in the marriage marke since women's contributions were vital to
(20)the survival of colonial households.
dexter's portrait of female colonists living under conditions of rough equality with their male counterparts was eventualiy incorporated into studies of nineteenth-century middle-class women
(25)the contrast between the self-sufficient colonial woman and the oppressed nineteenth--century woman confined to her home by stultifying ideologies of domesticity and by the fact that industrialization eliminated employment
(30)opportunities for middle -class women gained an extraordinarily tenacious hold on historians. even scholars who have questioned the "golden age" view of colonial women's status have continued to accept the paradigm of a nineteenth-century
(35)decline from a more desirable past. for example. joan hofi-wilson asserted that there was no "golden age" and yet emphasized that the nineteenth century brought "increased loss of function and authentic status for" middle-class
(40) women
recent publications about colonial women have exposed the concept of a decline in status as simplistic and unsophisticated, a theory that based its assessment of colonial women's status solely on
(45)one factor (their economic function in society) and assumed all too readily that a relatively simple social system automatically brought higher standing to colonial women. the new scholarship presents a far more complicated picture, one in which
(50)definitions of gender roles, the colonial economy, demographic patterns, religion, the law, and household organization all contributed to defining the circumstances of colonial women's lives. indeed, the primary concern of modern scholarship is not to
(55)generalize about women's status but to identify the specific changes and continuities in women's lives during the colonial period. for example, whereas change for colonial women before 1800 the new
(60)scholarship suggests that a three-part chronological division more accurately reflects colonial women's experiences. first was the initial period of english colonization (from the 1620s to about 1660); then a period during which patterns of family and
(65)community were challenged and reshaped (roughly from 1660 to 1750); and finally the era of revolution (approximately 1750 to 1815), which brought other changes to women's lives
22. which one of the following best expresses the main idea of the passage?
(a) an earlier theory about the status of middle-class women in the nineteenth century has been supported by recent scholarship
(b) recent studies of middle-class nineteenth-century women have altered an earlier theory about the status of colonial women
(c) recent scholarship has exposed an earlier theory about the status of colonial women as too narrowly based and oversimplified
(d) an earlier theory about colonial women has greatly influenced recent studies on middle-class women in the nineteenth century
(e) an earlier study of middle-class women was based on insufficient research on the status of women in the nineteenth century
23. the author discusses hoff-wilson primarily in order to
(a) describe how dexter's theory was refuted by historians of nineteenth-century north america
(b) describe how the theory of middle-class women's nineteenth-century decline in siatus was developed
(c) describe an important influence on recent scholarship about the colonial period
(d) demonstrate the persistent influence of the "golden age" theory
(e) provide an example of current research one the colonial period
24. it can be inferred from the passage that the author would be most likely to describe the views of the scholars mentioned in line 32 as
(a) unassailable
(b) innovative
(c) paradoxical
(d) overly sophisticated
(e) without merit
25. it can be inferred from the passage that in proposing the "three-part chronological division" (lines 60-61), scholars recognized which one of the following?
(a) the circumstances of colonial women's lives were defined by a broad variety of social and economic factors
(b) women's lives in the english colonies of north america were similar to women's lives in seventeenth-and eighteenth-century england
(c) colonial women's status was adversely affected when patterns of family and community were established in the late seventeenth century
(d) colonial women's status should be assessed primarily on the basis of their economic function in society
(e) colonial women's status was low when the colonies were settled but changed significantly during the era of revolution
26. according to the author the publications about colonial women mentioned in the third paragraph had which one of the following effects?
(a) they undermined dexter's argument on the status of women colonists during the colonial period.
(b) they revealed the tenacity of the "golden age" theory in american history
(c) they provided support for historians, such as hoff-wilson. who study the nineteenth century
(d) they established that women's status did not change significantly from the colonial period to the nineteenth century
(e) they provided support for earlier theories about women colonists in the english colonies of north america
27. practitioners of the new scholarship discussed in the last paragraph would be most likely to agree with which one of the following statements about dexter's argument?
(a) it makes the assumption that women's status is determined primarily by their political power in society
(b) it makes the assumption that a less complex social system necessarily confers higher status on women
(c) it is based on inadequate research on women's economic role in the colonies
(d) it places too much emphasis on the way definitions of gender roles affected women colonists in the colonial period
(e) it accurately describes the way women's status declined in the nineteenth century.