Gre Reading Comp-mini Test

This Mini-Test consists of three reading passages and 9 questions (3 questions per passage). Select your responses by clicking on the buttons. Limit your time to 18 minutes. Passage 1: ....The arrival in a new location of a non-indigenous plant or animal species may be either intentional or unintentional. Rates of species movement driven by human transformations of natural environments as well as by human mobility—through commerce, tourism, and travel—dwarf natural rates by comparison. While geographic distributions of species naturally expand or contract over historical time intervals (tens to hundreds of years), species' ranges rarely expand thousands of miles or across physical barriers such as oceans or mountains. ....A number of factors confound quantitative evaluation of the relative importance of various entry pathways. Time lags often occur between establishment of nonindigenous species and their detection, and tracing the pathway for a longestablished species is difficult. Experts estimate that non-indigenous weeds are usually detected only after having been in the country for thirty years or having spread to at least ten thousand acres. In addition, federal port inspection, although a major source of information on non-indigenous species pathways, especially for agricultural pests, provides data only when such species enter via scrutinized routes. Finally, some comparisons between pathways defy quantitative analysis. For example, which is more "important": the entry pathway of one very harmful species or one by which many but less harmful species enter the country? 1. Which of the following statements about species ....movement is best supported by the information in ....the passage? .

...(A) Species movement is affected more by habitat ..............modifications than by human mobility. ...(B) Human-driven factors affect the rate at which ..............species move more than they affect the long..............term amount of such movements. ...(C) Natural expansions in the geographic distri..............bution of species account for less species ..............movement than do natural contractions. ...(D) Natural environments created by commerce, ..............tourism, and travel contribute significantly to ..............species movement. ...(E) Movement of a species within a continent ..............depends largely upon the geographic extent of ..............human mobility within the continent. ....Answer · Passage

2. Which of the following best expresses the author's ....primary concern in the second paragraph? .

...(A) to describe the events usually leading to the

..............detection of a non-indigenous species ...(B) to identify the problems in assessing the ..............relative significance of various entry path..............ways for non-indigenous species ...(C) to discuss the role that time lags and ..............geographic expansion of non-indigenous ..............species play in species detection ...(D) to point out the inadequacy of the federal port ..............inspection system in detecting the entry of ..............non-indigenous species ...(E) to explain why it is difficult to trace the entry ..............pathways for long-established non-indigenous ..............species ....Answer · Passage 3. Based upon the information in the passage, whether ....the entry pathway for a particular non-indigenous ....species can be determined is LEAST likely to depend ....upon which of the following? .

...(A) whether the species is considered to be a pest ...(B) whether the species gains entry through a ..............scrutinized route ...(C) the rate at which the species expands ..............geographically ...(D) how long the species has been established ...(E) the size of the average member of the species Passage 2: Those who criticize the United States government today for not providing health care to all citizens equate health care provision with medical insurance coverage. By this standard, seventeenth- and eighteenth-century America lacked any significant conception of public health law. However, despite the general paucity of bureaucratic organization in pre-industrial America, the vast extent of health regulation and provision stands out as remarkable. ....Of course the public role in the protection and regulation of eighteenth-century health was carried out in ways quite different from those today. Organizations responsible for health regulation were less stable than modern bureaucracies, tending to appear in crises and wither away in periods of calm. The focus was on epidemics which were seen as unnatural and warranting a response, not to the many endemic and chronic conditions which were accepted as part and parcel of daily life. Additionally, religious influence was significant, especially in the seventeenth century. Finally, in an era which lacked sharp demarcations between private and governmental bodies, many public responsibilities were carried out by what we would now consider private associations. Nevertheless, the extent of public health regulation long before the dawn of the welfare state is remarkable and suggests that the founding generation's assumptions about the relationship between government and health were more complex than is commonly assumed. 4. Among the following statements about the United ....States government's role in the provision of health

....care, which finds the LEAST support in the passage? .

...(A) The government today addresses health con..............cerns that formerly were not considered ..............serious enough to warrant government ..............involvement. ...(B) What were once public health-care functions ..............are now served by the private sector. ...(C) Philosophical considerations play a less ..............significant role today in the formulation of ..............public health-care policies than in previous ..............centuries. ...(D) Public health care today is guided largely by ..............secular rather than religious values. ...(E) Modern public health-care agencies are typ..............ically established not as temporary measures ..............but rather as permanent establishments. ....Answer · Passage 5. Which of the following best expresses the author's ....point of contention with "those who criticize the ....United States government for not providing health ....care to all citizens" (lines 1-2)? .

...(A) Their standard for measuring such provision is ..............too narrow. ...(B) They underestimate the role that insurance ..............plays in the provision of health care today. ...(C) They fail to recognize that government plays a ..............more significant role today in health care than ..............in previous eras. ...(D) They misunderstand the intent of the founding ..............generation with respect to the proper role of ..............the government in the area of health care. ...(E) They lack any significant conception of public ..............health law. ....Answer · Passage 6. Which of the following best expresses the main point ....of the passage? .

...(A) The government's role in health care has not ..............expanded over time to the extent that many ..............critics have asserted. ...(B) The government should limit its involvement in ..............health care to epidemiological problems. ...(C) Health problems plaguing pre-industrial ..............America resulted largely from inadequate ..............public health care. ...(D) History suggests that the United States ..............government has properly played a significant ..............role in provision of health care.

...(E) Private insurance is an inadequate solution to ..............the problem of health care. Passage 3: When Ralph Waldo Emerson pronounced America's declaration of cultural independence from Europe in his "American Scholar" address, he was actually articulating the transcendental assumptions of Jefferson's political independence. In the ideal new world envisioned by Emerson, America's becoming a perfect democracy of free and self-reliant individuals was within reach. Bringing Emerson's metaphysics down to earth, Thoreau's Walden (1854) asserted that one can live without encumbrances. Emerson wanted to visualize Thoreau as the ideal scholar in action that he had called for in the "American Scholar," but in the end Emerson regretted Thoreau's too-private individualism which failed to signal the vibrant revolution in national consciousness that Emerson had prophesied. .... For Emerson, what Thoreau lacked, Whitman embodied in full. On reading Leaves of Grass (1855), Emerson saw in Whitman the "prophet of democracy" whom he had sought. Other American Renaissance writers were less sanguine than Emerson and Whitman about the fulfillment of the democratic ideal. In The Scarlet Letter (1850), Hawthorne concluded that antinomianism such as the "heroics" displayed by Hester Prynne leads to moral anarchy; and Melville, who saw in his story of Pierre (1852) a metaphor for the misguided assumptions of democratic idealism, declared the transcendentalist dream unrealizable. Ironically, the literary vigor with which both Hawthorne and Melville explored the ideal showed their deep sympathy with it even as they dramatized its delusions. 7. The author of the passage seeks primarily to .

...(A) explore the impact of the American ..............Renaissance writers on the literature of the ..............late eighteenth century ...(B) illustrate how American literature of the mid..............eighteenth century differed in form from ..............European literature of the same time ..............period ...(C) identify two schools of thought among ..............American Renaissance writers regarding the ..............democratic ideal ...(D) point out how Emerson's democratic idealism ..............was mirrored by the works of the American ..............Renaissance writers ...(E) explain why the writers of the American ..............Renaissance believed that an ideal world ..............was forming in America ....Answer · Passage 8. Based upon the information in the passage, Emerson ....might be characterized as any of the following ....EXCEPT: .

...(A) a transcendentalist ...(B) an American Renaissance writer ...(C) a public speaker

...(D) a political prophet ...(E) a literary critic ....Answer · Passage 9. With which of the following statements about Melville ....and Hawthorne would the author most likely agree? .

...(A) Both men were disillusioned transcen..............dentalists. ...(B) Hawthorne sympathized with the transcen..............dental dream more so than Melville. ...(C) They agreed as to what the transcendentalist ..............dream would ultimately lead to. ...(D) Both men believed the idealists to be ..............misguided. ...(E) Hawthorne politicized the transcendental ideal, ..............while Melville personalized it. ....Answer · Passage