Please refer to the four passages at the end of the page to answer the questions.

1- “L.M. Green, a lawyer of Petersburg, in Menard County, says that every time he visited New Salem at this period Lincoln took him out upon a hill and asked him to explain some point in Kirkham that had given him trouble”
The above implies which of the following about Lincoln’s character?

A) He was impatient with tedious components of grammar.

B) He was ignorant to the ethics of making a request.

C) He was eager to learn and make an effort.

D) He was demanding when it came to material he did not comprehend.

The beginning of the passage immediately opens to reveal Lincoln’s inclination towards studying, informing us that Lincoln would walk “seven or eight miles” to borrow a copy of Kirkham’s Grammar. In lines 9-12, we realize that Lincoln would tackle difficult material and would not hesitate to seek further help if he was stuck. Choice (A) is incorrect. Lincoln did not find grammar tedious nor was he impatient with the learning process. Choice (B) is incorrect. The passage does not tackle Lincoln’s etiquette. Choice (D) is incorrect. The diction of the passage does not reveal an aggressive tone. Choice (C) is, therefore, correct.

2- Passage 1 is best described as

A) a conceptual definition.

B) a methodological example.

C) a procedural description.

D) a theoretical discussion.

Use the process of elimination to answer this question. The passage does not discuss a concept nor a procedure so both Choice (A) and Choice (B) are incorrect. The passage does not discuss a methodology so Choice (C) is incorrect. That leaves Choice (D), a theoretical discussion of a “web of complex relations” between animals and plants.

3- The attitude that the author (passage 3) takes throughout the passage is best described as that of

A) awe and admiration.

B) indifference and nonchalance.

C) professionalism and objectivity.

D) reverence and subjectivity.

It is important to read the passage carefully. In order to understand the attitude of the author, we must analyze specific words related to attitude and tone. Towards the end of the passage, the author refers to the bacteria’s “power” to feed and produce “chemical changes” together with the power to “assimilate this material as food” as “marvelous.” The term “marvelous” holds a positive connotation. Furthermore, the author refers to the bacteria as “agents in Nature of extreme importance.” Choice (B) and Choice (C) are eliminated as possible answers since they are opposite to the author’s choice of words. Although the author does show an attitude of reverence, or respect, he does not exhibit subjectivity throughout the passage. Therefore, Choice (A) is correct.

4- The relationship between the first and second paragraph and the rest of passage 4 can best be described as

A) premise followed by opposition.

B) analogy followed by narrative structure.

C) assertion followed by supporting evidence.

D) analysis followed by generalization.

Read the first two paragraphs and identify their structure. After an initial reading, it is clear that the author is drawing comparisons between different extremes. That eliminates Choice (D). The author is not stating a fact or a belief. That eliminates Choice (C). Now that we have narrowed down the answers to two choices, we need to look at the relationship between the first two paragraphs and the rest of the passage. The rest of the passage does not oppose the first two paragraphs. Therefore, Choice (A) is incorrect. Choice (B) is the correct answer.

5- The author of Passage 2 most likely mentions “Teleology” to

A) express an opposing premise to the theory of animal adaptation.

B) bolster the theory of Teleology.

C) reject a premise on the grounds of evidence.

D) solidify the importance of Teleology in relation to the theory of animal adaptation.

In this question, we need to compare the two passages and their respective main ideas. The first passage discusses the relationship between animals and the ecosystem. The main idea centers around the theory of animal adaptation. In the second passage, the author introduces a new theory, Teleology. At the end of the second passage, the author states that when taking into consideration “Origin of Species,” or passage 1, “nothing can be more entirely and absolutely opposed to Teleology, as it is commonly understood, than the theory of animal adaptation.” Choice (D) is incorrect. Passage 1 does not at any point mentioned Teleology. Choice (C) is incorrect. Passage 2 does not use Teleology to reject a premise. Choice (B) is incorrect. The author’s intention is not to support Teleology as a theory. Instead, the author uses Teleology to oppose animal adaptation. Therefore, Choice (A) is correct.

6- Based on the ideas presented in passage 3, the graph

A) accentuates the validity of the experiment.

B) presents the long process of multiplication.

C) supports the information in the passage.

D) provides new information unrelated to the passage.

The passage discusses bacterial multiplication. If we read the passage closely, we see that the author uses numbers and examples to delineate the “power of growth” as bacteria feeds on food. If we read the graph, we see that the vertical axis is the logarithm of living bacterial cells while the horizontal axis is time. The graph also shows four different phases of a bacterial cell’s life cycle. Taking the main ideas of the passage into consideration, Choice (D) and Choice (A) are eliminated since they are irrelevant to the text. Choice (B) only focuses on the process of multiplication, which is incorrect. That leaves Choice (C) as the correct answer.

7- The author most likely mentions numbers in the below lines
“. In one day each bacterium would produce over 16,500,000 descendants, and in two days about 281,500,000,000. It has been further calculated that these 281,500,000,000 would form about a solid pint of bacteria and weigh about a pound. At the end of the third day the total descendants would amount to 47,000,000,000,000, and would weigh about 16,000,000 pounds” (passage 3) to

A) support his premise that bacterial cells need favorable conditions.

B) provide an estimate of the multiplied bacterial cells.

C) illustrate the bacterial cells’ rapid growth accurately.

D) add details to the passage.

It is important to always realize that the use of numbers or statistics are present as support for a claim, idea, or premise. Therefore, Choice (D) is eliminated. In the paragraph where the lines are found, the author stresses the “power of multiplication by division.” The author uses numbers to represent the division over a time period when conditions are complimentary: “Some of the species which have been carefully watched under the microscope have been found under favorable conditions to grow so rapidly as to divide every half hour, or even less.” That sentence is a premise set by the author. Therefore, the numbers that follow the premise seek to support it. The answer is Choice (A).

Passage 1

Passage 1 is edited and taken from On the Origin of Species By Means of Natural Selection on the complex relationship between plants and animals and Passage 2 is edited and taken from Criticisms on “The Origin of Species” by Thomas Henry Huxley which presents a critical reading of the theory of animal adaptation.

Passage 1

I am tempted to give one more instance
showing how plants and animals, most
remote in the scale of nature, are bound
together by a web of complex relations.
I shall hereafter have occasion to show
that the exotic Lobelia fulgens, in this
part of England, is never visited by
insects, and consequently, from its
peculiar structure, never can set a seed.
Many of our orchidaceous plants
absolutely require the visits of moths to
remove their pollen-masses and thus to
fertilize them. I have, also, reason to
believe that humble-bees are
indispensable to the fertilization of the
heartsease (Viola tricolor), for other
bees do not visit this flower. From
experiments which I have tried, I have
found that the visits of bees, if not
indispensable, are at least highly
beneficial to the fertilization of our
clovers; but humble-bees alone visit the
common red clover (Trifolium
pratense), as other bees cannot reach the
nectar. Hence I have very little doubt,
that if the whole genus of humble-bees
became extinct or very rare in England,
the heartsease and red clover would
become very rare, or wholly disappear.
The number of humble-bees in any
district depends in a great degree on the
number of field-mice, which destroy
their combs and nests; and Mr. H.
Newman, who has long attended to the
habits of humble-bees, believes that
“more than two thirds of them are thus

destroyed all over England.” Now the
number of mice is largely dependent, as
everyone knows, on the number of cats;
and Mr. Newman says, “Near villages
and small towns I have found the nests
of humble-bees more numerous than
elsewhere, which I attribute to the
number of cats that destroy the mice.
” Hence it is quite credible that the
presence of a feline animal in large
numbers in a district might determine,
through the intervention first of mice
and then of bees, the frequency of
certain flowers in that district!
In the case of every species, many
different checks, acting at different periods
of life, and during different seasons or
years, probably come into play; someone
check or some few being generally the
most potent, but all concurring in
determining the average number or even
the existence of the species. In some cases
it can be shown that widely-different
checks act on the same species in different
districts. When we look at the plants and
bushes clothing an entangled bank, we are
tempted to attribute their proportional
numbers and kinds to what we call chance.
But how false a view is this! Everyone has
heard that when an American forest is cut
down, a very different vegetation springs
up; but it has been observed that the trees
now growing on the ancient Indian
mounds, in the Southern United States,
display the same beautiful diversity and
proportion of kinds as in the surrounding
virgin forests. What a struggle between the
several kinds of trees must here have gone
on during long centuries, each annually
scattering its seeds by the thousand; what
war between insect and insect—between
insects, snails, and other animals with
birds and beasts of prey—all striving to
increase, and all feeding on each other or
on the trees or their seeds and seedlings, or
on the other plants which first clothed the
ground and thus checked the growth of the trees!

Passage 2

Cats catch mice, small birds and
the like, very well. Teleology tells us that
they do so because they were expressly
constructed for so doing—that they are
perfect mousing apparatuses, so perfect
and so delicately adjusted that no one of
their organs could be altered, without the
change involving the alteration of all the
rest. The theory of animal adaptation
affirms on the contrary, that there was no
express construction concerned in the
matter; but that among the multitudinous
variations of the Feline stock, many of
which died out from want of power to
resist opposing influences, some, the cats,
were better fitted to catch mice than
others, whence they throve and persisted,
in proportion to the advantage over their
fellows thus offered to them.
Far from imagining that cats exist “in
order” to catch mice well, the theory of
animal adaptation supposes that cats exist
“because” they catch mice well—mousing
being not the end, but the condition, of
their existence. And if the cat type has
long persisted as we know it, the
interpretation of the fact upon the theory
of animal adaptation principles would be,
not that the cats have remained invariable,
but that such varieties as have incessantly
occurred have been, on the whole, less
fitted to get on in the world than the
existing stock.
If we apprehend the spirit of the
“Origin of Species” rightly, then, nothing
can be more entirely and absolutely
opposed to Teleology, as it is commonly
understood, than the theory of animal
adaptation.

Passage 3

Passage 3 is taken from The Story of Germ Life by H. W. Conn which discusses the concept of bacterial multiplication.

In their method of growth we find one of
the most characteristic features. They
universally have the power of
multiplication by simple division or
fission. Each individual elongates and then
divides in the middle into two similar
halves, each of which then repeats the
process. This method of multiplication by
simple division is the distinguishing mark
which separates the bacteria from the
yeasts, the latter plants multiplying by a
process known as budding.
It is this power of multiplication by
division that makes bacteria agents of such
significance. Their minute size would
make them harmless enough if it were not
for an extraordinary power of
multiplication. This power of growth and
division is almost incredible. Some of the
species which have been carefully watched
under the microscope have been found
under favorable conditions to grow so
rapidly as to divide every half hour, or
even less. The number of offspring that
would result in the course of twenty-four
hours at this rate is of course easily
computed. In one day each bacterium
would produce over 16,500,000
descendants, and in two days about
281,500,000,000. It has been further
calculated that these 281,500,000,000
would form about a solid pint of bacteria
and weigh about a pound. At the end of
the third day the total descendants would
amount to 47,000,000,000,000, and would
weigh about 16,000,000 pounds. Of course
these numbers have no significance, for
they are never actual or even possible

numbers. Long before the offspring reach
even into the millions their rate of
multiplication is checked either by lack of
food or by the accumulation of their own
excreted products, which are injurious to
them. But the figures do have interest
since they show faintly what an unlimited
power of multiplication these organisms
have, and thus show us that in dealing with
bacteria we are dealing with forces of
almost infinite extent.
This wonderful power of growth is
chiefly due to the fact that bacteria feed
upon food which is highly organized and
already in condition for absorption. Most
plants must manufacture their own foods
out of simpler substances, like carbonic
dioxide (Co2) and water, but bacteria, as a
rule, feed upon complex organic material
already prepared by the previous life of
plants or animals. For this reason they can
grow faster than other plants. Not being
obliged to make their own foods like most
plants, nor to search for it like animals, but
living in its midst, their rapidity of growth
and multiplication is limited only by their
power to seize and assimilate this food. As
they grow in such masses of food, they
cause certain chemical changes to take
place in it, changes doubtless directly
connected with their use of the material as
food. Recognizing that they do cause
chemical changes in food material, and
remembering this marvelous power of
growth, we are prepared to believe them
capable of producing changes wherever
they get a foothold and begin to grow.
Their power of feeding upon complex
organic food and producing chemical
changes therein, together with their
marvelous power of assimilating this
material as food, make them agents in
Nature of extreme importance

Passage 4

Passage 4 is taken from A Tale of Two Cities by Charles Dickens. The novel takes place before and after the French Revolution and the passage introduces the first paragraphs of the novel, setting the stage for future events.

It was the best of times,
it was the worst of times,
it was the age of wisdom,
it was the age of foolishness,
it was the epoch of belief,
it was the epoch of incredulity,
it was the season of Light,
it was the season of Darkness,
it was the spring of hope,
it was the winter of despair,

we had everything before us, we had
nothing before us, we were all going direct
to Heaven, we were all going direct the
other way— in short, the period was so far
like the present period, that some of its
noisiest authorities insisted on its being
received, for good or for evil, in the
superlative degree of comparison only.
There were a king with a large jaw and a
queen with a plain face, on the throne of
England; there were a king with a large
jaw and a queen with a fair face, on the
throne of France. In both countries it was
clearer than crystal to the lords of the State
preserves of loaves and fishes, that things
in general were settled for ever.
It was the year one thousand seven
hundred and seventy-five. Spiritual
revelations were conceded to England at
that favored period, as at this. Mrs.
Southcott had recently attained her five
-and-twentieth blessed birthday, of whom a
prophetic private in the Life Guards had
heralded the sublime appearance by
announcing that arrangements were made
for the swallowing up of London and

Westminster. Even the Cock-lane ghost
had been laid only a round dozen of years,
after rapping out its messages, as the
spirits of this very year last past
(supernaturally deficient in originality)
rapped out theirs. Mere messages in the
earthly order of events had lately come to
the English Crown and People, from a
congress of British subjects in America:
which, strange to relate, have proved more
important to the human race than any
communications yet received through any
of the chickens of the Cock-lane brood.

France, less favored on the whole
as to matters spiritual than her sister of the
shield and trident, rolled with exceeding
smoothness down hill, making paper
money and spending it. Under the
guidance of those who ruled her, she
entertained herself, besides, with such
humane achievements that were nothing
but humane, sentencing a youth to his utter
demise because he had not kneeled down
in the rain to do honor to a traitor which
passed within his view, at a distance of
some fifty or sixty yards. It is likely
enough that, rooted in the woods of France
and Norway, there were growing trees,
when that sufferer was put to death,
already marked by the Woodman, Fate, to
come down and be sawn into boards, to
make a certain movable framework with a
sack and a knife in it, terrible in history. It
is likely enough that in the rough
outhouses of some tillers of the heavy
lands adjacent to Paris, there were
sheltered from the weather that very day,
rude carts, bespattered with rustic mire,
snuffed about by cows, and roosted in by
poultry, which the Farmer, Death, had
already set apart to be his tumbrils of the
Revolution. But that Woodman and that
Farmer, though they work unceasingly,
work silently, and no one heard them as
they went about with muffled tread: the
rather, forasmuch as to entertain any
suspicion that they were awake, was to be
disloyal and traitorous