SAT Advanced

Extra Reading 1
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Questions 1-10 are based on the following "And to that question posed 6,000 years ago— ’Who

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passage. can fathom the depths of the abyss?’— only two out of
This passage, written in 1996, is adapted from a book in all humanity now have the right to respond. Captain
which an oceanographer recounts her experiences piloting Nemo and I.”
a deep-sea submersible craft to explore the ocean floor. 50 There is no real boundary to the part of the planet
When I was a child, I thought that all the world I think of as the deep sea. Technically, it is defined as
was known. It was taught to me so. I thought the list oceanic depths greater than a few hundred meters. In
of explorers complete, the species and their habitats my mind, the deep sea encompasses the depths of the
Line all catalogued. I thought with envy of sailors who ocean beyond where daylight penetrates — beyond
5 had discovered whole new lands. I wished that I had 55 where the sun at noon becomes twilight, beyond
been the first person ever to stand at the edge of the darkness, into utter black.
Grand Canyon or beside the hot springs of It is said that the seafloor is a desert, a vast and
Yellowstone. I wanted to be the first astronaut to set uniform wasteland, all but devoid of life. Textbooks
foot on the Moon. on the shelf in my laboratory say so. But I know that
10 I was twenty-nine years old when I first looked 60 is not true. Life on the seafloor is abundant and
over the rim of the Grand Canyon. Although my spectacularly diverse, the stuff of science fiction.
visit to the great hole was brief, the experience Granted, in many places the diversity and wealth of
marked me, settled into my being. It became, I am life are to be appreciated only through a microscope
certain, a subconscious part of what defines me and and painstaking identification of worms and
15 the way I look at the world. The aurora borealis was 65 crustaceans captured in the soft mud taken from the
like that, too. I first observed the northern lights — great flat areas of ocean floor.
that astonishing display of light beams dancing Deep-sea research is a frontier science. The
through the midnight skies — while exploring the seafloor is the largest and least-known wilderness on
woods of Maine. I was mesmerized. And I wondered our planet. There is a beauty to life and landscape
20 at my naïveté; how could I have lived so long in 70 there; it is life sculpted by extreme and hostile
ignorance of the aurora? Like the canyon, the aurora conditions, life that is fragile and all but unknown. It
is so magnificent, so awesome, that it seems to be a is a world for explorers.
part of the very soul of nature.
There is another place, a vast expanse of places, * Captain Nemo was the fictional commander of the
25 really, that rivals the grandeur, mystery, and fantasy submarine Nautilus, portrayed by French author Jules Verne
of the Grand Canyon and the aurora borealis. You (1828-1905) in his science-fiction tale Twenty Thousand
are not likely to go there to see it for yourself, yet I go Leagues Under the Sea.
all the time — to the bottom of the sea, to the
Octopus’s Garden. Mine is a scientist’s perspective of
30 the deep sea. As a scientist, I am robed with degrees
and academic pedigree. I write reams of dry prose
with appropriately technical language and what my
colleagues consider scientific consequence. But at
heart, I confess, I am an amateur naturalist, quick to
35 delight in the unusual nature of a worm, the oddities
of a shrimp, the peculiarities of a rock.
By literary standards, the deep sea is a solemn
place, vaguely sinister, a place of loss, a place
unknown, where the poet Tennyson describes the
40 monstrous Kraken sleeping below the thunder of the
upper deep, where faintest sunlights flee. Only
Captain Nemo in the Nautilus of fiction has voyaged
20,000 leagues through the submarine depths of all
seven seas.* As Monsieur Arronax says in the last
45 words (words that still apply) of Jules Verne's tale:

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In the first paragraph, which of the following feelings The author's experience regarding the Grand
does the author describe having experienced as a Canyon and the aurora borealis is most similar to
child? that of
A) Curiosity A) an astronomer, startled by the clarity provided
B) Exhilaration by a new state-of-the-art telescope
C) Bewilderment B) a medical researcher, proud of being
acknowledged for identifying the cause of an
D) Frustration
illness
C) a marathon runner, elated at having exceeded a
personal-best record
D) a musician, astounded at the effect of hearing a
highly acclaimed piece for the first time
2
The author’s primary purpose in lines 1-9 is to
A) reflect on an incorrect assumption she once held
B) introduce an argument about exploration’s
scientific value 5
C) set the tone for an analysis of scientific themes in In the passage, the author indicates that
literature
A) her academic career is demanding, but she
D) describe the event that sparked her wonderment
relishes it
about nature
B) in spite of initial obstacles, she has been
successful in her career as an oceanographer
C) despite her technical training, she retains a
naive enthusiasm for nature
D) her sense of adventure would have been fueled
by any research subject she chose
3
What did the experience of looking “over the rim of
the Grand Canyon’’ (line 11) represent for the
author?
A) A frightening but necessary aspect of her
education 6
B) An awakening to the vulnerability of the natural Which choice provides the best evidence for the
environment answer to the previous question
C) A watershed event in the development of her A) Lines 13-16 (“It ... too")
view of the world
B) Lines 30-36 (“As ... rock")
D) A revelation of humanity’s place in the natural
C) Lines 50-52 (“There ... meters")
world
D) Lines 57-60 (“It ... true")

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In lines 40-41 (“sleeping ... flee"), the author cites a The author highlights an opposition between what is
description of the deep sea that emphasizes both its said by "Textbooks" (line 58) and what
A) stillness and its beauty A) her childhood teachers maintained
B) violence and its energy B) the style of her scientific w riting suggests
C) boundlessness and its barrenness C) the novel Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the
D) quiet and its darkness Sea portrays
D) is found on the seafloor

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The author quotes the fictional Monsieur Arronax In her comment in lines 62-66 regarding “the
(lines 46-49) to suggest that diversity and wealth of life," the author does which
of the following?
A) few people are qualified to attempt underwater
exploration A) Concedes a point.
B) literary attempts to imagine the ocean depths B) Critiques an approach.
have failed to capture the reality C) Admits a misunderstanding.
C) attempting deep-sea dives is foolhardy but well D) Speculates about an outcome.
worth the risk
D) Nemo’s fictional voyage still has no complete
parallel in the real world

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Questions 1-10 are based on the following The great accomplishment of Homo sapiens is not

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passage. technology, which has become bigger and scarier
This passage is adapted from the autobiographical account than we are, a mixed blessing. The great
of a journalist traveling through Africa to research accomplishment is language, which has enabled us to
chimpanzees. 50 accumulate and coordinate our achievements,
Our walk through the forest was like a journey insights, and minicreations. Our big technologies are
through an extended underground cavern. We collective efforts, cultural products, all and always
wound through obscure passages, out into small made possible by language. Even the supposed
Line openings or great rooms, and then tunneled back “milestones" of technological advancement—the use
5 into winding passageways. Toward the end of the 55 of movable type, to take one example—were
afternoon, we followed what seemed to be a large collective events. Johannes Gutenberg* didn't think
movement of chimpanzees into one great open room up movable type whole, in an isolated stroke of
in the forest, relatively clear except for columns of genius. His partner was a goldsmith; his father was a
nut trees. Soon about a dozen chimps were mint employee, entirely familiar with soft metals.
10 hammering away, using log hammers on log or root 60 Printing presses were all around Europe by then.
anvils. Gutenberg’s great genius was to assemble, revise, and
We had entered a factory, but it was also a modify already long-established traditions in
nursery. I turned to watch a mother playing with her metallurgy, goldsmithing, and woodblock printing,
infant, tickling his toes with playful little nibbles and not to mention papermaking and press design.
15 then looking into his laughing face and eyes with the 65 Our one great accomplishment is language, but
most amazing gaze of adoration. Elsewhere, three our great hope is the internal compass that may
adult females had situated themselves in a tree and enable us to guide ourselves and our technological
were kissing and tickling an infant, who writhed with powers into the future: our glowing capacity for
apparent pleasure. Suddenly, their faces, which had valuing our own kind and for at least some empathy
20 taken on remarkable glowing expressions of 70 beyond our kind. The hand lifting and dropping the
adoration, registered in my mind as entirely stone is less impressive than the eye that gazes with
comprehensible. I was looking at intelligent faces love.
experiencing an emotion I could only imagine to be
love.
25 One commentator has said that the big difference
*Gutenberg’s typesetting process made the mass production of
between humans and chimps (intelligent though
text possible.
those apes may be) is that humans can invent great
wonders of technology. "I considered the differences
between men and animals,” this person wrote. “Some
30 were vast. A chimpanzee could be taught to drive a
car. It could even be taught to build parts of it. But it
could not begin to design it.... Our intellect is
incomparably more sophisticated than [that of] any
animal.” One hears this sort of argument often, and,
35 to my mind, it is mere self-stroking puffery. Could
you or I begin to design a car? Has any single human
actually designed a car? Could any one person
abandoned at birth on a desert island somewhere—
without pictures, communication, education, or
40 artifacts—even invent a tricycle or a child's kite or a
mousetrap? Obviously not. Left at birth on a desert
island, you and I and that commentator would be
lifting and dropping chunks of wood or rounded
stones onto hard nuts—and be glad we figured that
45 one out.

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It can be inferred that the "chimps” mentioned in The questions in lines 35-41 serve primarily to
line 9 are
A) suggest ideas for further research
A) using simple tools to crack open nuts B) provide an example of missing data
B) expressing themselves by making a lot of noise C) point to an alternative explanation
C) taking out their aggressions on the nut trees D) imply that an argument is flawed
D) working cooperatively on different tasks

2 In the passage, the author characterizes

technology as
The author uses the word “factory” (line 12)
primarily to suggest that A) the accomplishment that distinguishes Homo
sapiens from chimpanzees
A) the sound created by the chimpanzees' activity is
B) a phenomenon that has come to overshadow
loud enough to impair hearing
those who developed it
B) the chimpanzees are doing productive work
C) an inevitable step in the development of human
collectively
beings and their societies
C) only those chimpanzees who want to participate
D) an achievement that has grown impressively in
in communal activities do so
importance over time
D) the activity of the male chimpanzees differs
significantly from that of the females

6
Which choice provides the best evidence for the
3 answer to the previous question
In line 35 (“it... puffery"), the author characterizes A) Lines 25-28 (“One ... technology")
the commentator’s argument as
B) Lines 46-48 (“The great ... blessing")
A) useless flattery C) Lines 51-53 (“Our ... language")
B) exaggerated self-regard D) Lines 61-64 (“Gutenberg’s ... design")
C) self-conscious hyperbole
D) deliberate distortion

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According to the author, the “great accomplishment Which best describes the relationship between the
is language” (lines 48-49) because it allows human “internal compass” (line 66) and the characterization
beings to of chimpanzee behaviors in the second paragraph?
A) combine small, individual advances into A) One shows a sophisticated understanding, while
something larger and more powerful the other shows a less-developed capacity for
understanding.
B) express their emotions and show their feelings
toward one another B) One deals with nonverbal communication, while
the other deals with communication through
C) express in concrete form notions that would
language.
otherwise seem vague and abstract
C) One is an example of a uniquely human ability,
D) demonstrate that they are more intelligent, and
while the other is an example of an ability that
thus more capable, than chimpanzees
chimpanzees may or may not have.
D) Both represent the ability to have affection for
and understanding of other beings.

8
The author uses the word “supposed” in line 53
primarily to
A) signal a claim that is counterintuitive for most 10
people
The “hand” (line 70) and the “eye” (line 71)
B) make reference to a viewpoint that is known to represent, respectively, which of the following?
be controversial
A) Gesture and feeling
C) suggest that a certain concept may not be
entirely accurate B) Ingenuity and language
D) bolster the claims of authorities who are often C) Communication and meaning
cited D) Technology and empathy

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Questions 1-11 are based on the following We ask those who object to Pleistocene rewilding:

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45
passages. Are you content with the defeatist attitude of our
These passages discuss Pleistocene rewilding: replacing the current conservation philosophy? Are you content
large mammals of North America that became extinct that your descendants might well live in a world
during the Pleistocene epoch with African or Asian relatives devoid of large animals? Are you willing to settle for
of those animals. 50 an American wilderness that is severely impoverished
relative to just 100 centuries ago? Although the
Passage 1
obstacles to Pleistocene rewilding are substantial and
Humans probably were responsible to some
the risks are not trivial, we can no longer accept a
degree for late Pleistocene extinctions of large
hands-off approach to wilderness preservation as
mammals in North America and elsewhere. Our
subsequent activities have curtailed survival prospects
55 realistic, defensible, or cost free. It is time not only to
Line
and evolutionary potential for most large vertebrates. save wild places but also to rewild and reinvigorate
5
For these reasons, as well as for the sake of future them.
human generations and Earth's plants and animals, Passage 2
citizens and scientists bear an ethical responsibility to We all remember Jurassic Park, the fictional
vigorously redress these problems through account of rewilding an isolated island with extinct
10 Pleistocene rewilding of North America. 60 dinosaurs recreated from ancient DNA. Pleistocene
Pleistocene rewilding is not a substitute for rewilding of North America is a proposal only
ongoing conservation projects in Africa or North slightly less sensational. It is a little like proposing
America. Instead, it centers on restoring ecological that two wrongs somehow will make a right. The
function to North America, where the evolutionary modern-day proxy species—African elephants in
15 potential of many large animals was stopped 13,000 65 place of American mammoths, etc.—are
years ago and where ecosystems have struggled in the “wrong” (that is, different genetically from the
absence of their former members. (The extinction of species that occurred in North America during the
predators like the American cheetah, for instance, Pleistocene epoch), and the ecosystems into which
means that a crucial link in the food chain is broken.) they are to be reintroduced are “wrong” (that is,
20 It is also a bold attempt to preserve the evolutionary 70 different in composition from Pleistocene ecosystems
potential of endangered African and Asian animals. as well as from those in which the modern-day proxy
In doing so, we hope to transform conservation species evolved). Pleistocene rewilding will not
biology, which is currently too easily characterized as restore evolutionary potential to North America's
a doom-and-gloom discipline because we merely extinct animals, because the species in question are
25 expose and try to slow the rate of biodiversity loss. 75 evolutionarily distinct, nor will it restore the
This characterization may discourage people from ecological potential of North America's modern
taking an interest in conservation. Pleistocene ecosystems, because they have continued to evolve
rewilding represents an exciting move away from over the past 13,000 years. In addition, there is a third
managing extinction and toward restoring ecological and potentially greater “wrong” proposed: adding
30 and evolutionary processes by using the past as a 80 these exotic species could potentially devastate
guide. populations of indigenous animals and plants.
In the coming century, we will decide, by default Although it is argued that Pleistocene rewilding of
or design, how much humanity will tolerate other North America is justified for ecological,
species and thus decide the future of biodiversity. The evolutionary, economic, aesthetic, and ethical
35 default scenario will surely include ever more 85 reasons, there are clearly numerous ecological and
landscapes dominated by pests and weeds, the global evolutionary concerns. Yes, the plan might help
extinction of more large vertebrates, and a continuing conserve and maintain the evolutionary potential of
struggle to slow the loss of biodiversity. While sound some endangered African and Asian animals. But it
science can help mitigate the risks of Pleistocene cannot restore the evolutionary potential of extinct
40 rewilding, the potential for unexpected consequences 90 species, and it may irreparably disrupt current
will worry many conservationists. Yet given the ecosystems. Moreover, there are many potential
apparent dysfunction of North American ecosystems practical limitations to this plan. Reintroduced
and Earth's overall state, there are likely significant camels did not survive for long in the deserts of the
risks of inaction as well. American West. Could African mammals, especially

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95 large carnivores, really populate the same areas? 3

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Would elephants survive the harsh prairie winters,
lacking the thick coats of their American mammoth Lines 22-31 ("In doing ... guide") suggest that
ancestors? conservation biology has
Answering these questions and accomplishing A) tried and failed at Pleistocene rewilding
100 Pleistocene rewilding of North America would require
a massive effort and infusion of funds and could take B) focused on coping with existing problems
more time to test experimentally than some of these without finding a real solution
critically endangered species have left to survive in C) concentrated solely on predicting future
their existing native habitats. If financial and physical extinctions
105 resources were available on this scale, they would be
D) caused scientists to seek creative approaches
better spent on developing new ways to manage and
from other fields
conserve existing populations of African, Asian, and
North American wildlife in their native habitats; on
conducting ecological, behavioral, and demographic
110 studies of these organisms in the environments in
which they evolved; and on educating each continent's
inhabitants about the wonders of their own dwindling
flora and fauna. 4
The author of Passage 1 characterizes the "default
scenario" in lines 34 -38 as
A) creative
B) inevitable
1 C) unlikely
The primary purpose of both passages is to D) undesirable
A) discredit the validity of a project
B) take a position on a potential plan of action
C) defend a widely held point of view
D) analyze the significance of a particular event
5
The author of Passage 2 would most likely
characterize the concern of the "many
conservationists" (line 41, Passage 1) as
2 A) universal
Both the American cheetah mentioned in line 18, B) well-founded
Passage 1, and the American mammoth mentioned
C) sentimental
in line 65, Passage 2, are examples of
D) diminishing
A) native species that have become extinct
B) native species that would be good candidates for
rewilding
C) proxy species that had difficulty adapting to new
habitats
D) predators that were important links in the food
chain

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In discussing various "wrongs", the author of Passage Both authors use questions (lines 46-51, Passage l,
2 indicates that the most serious one is the and lines 94-98, Passage 2) primarily in order to
A) risk that proxy species would severely damage A) anticipate objections
existing ecological communities B) pose alternative solutions
B) probability that proxy species would fail to C) acknowledge that they do not have all the
survive because they evolved in different answers
ecosystems
D) raise doubts about aspects of the opposing
C) menace that certain proxy species would pose to argument
other proxy species
D) concern that proxy species would return existing
ecosystems to a state similar to chat of the
Pleistocene epoch

10
Which best characterizes the function of the final
sentence of Passage 2 (lines 104-113) ?
7 A) It debates the merits of an argument.
Which choice provides the best evidence for the B) It offers alternatives to a plan.
answer to the previous question? C) It summarizes a radical new hypothesis.
A) Lines 62-63 (“It ... right”) D) It lists important objections to an idea.
B) Lines 63-66 (“The ... wrong”)
C) Lines 72-75 (“Pleistocene ... distinct”)
D) Lines 78-81 (“In ... plants”)

11
The author of Passage 1 would most likely
characterize the ideas in lines 104-113, Passage 2 (“If
8 financial ... fauna”), as

As used in line 75, "distinct" most nearly means A) wasteful

B) undisciplined
A) recognizable
C) prudent
B) strange
D) inadequate
C) different
D) clear

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Questions 1-11 are based on the following

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Passage 2
passages. Today everyone who values cities is disturbed by
The following passages discuss an important issue in urban 50 automobiles.
life. Traffic arteries, along with parking lots, gas
stations, and driveways, are powerful and insistent
Passage 1 instruments of city destruction. To accommodate
Life in a pedestrian-friendly city cushions the them, city streets are broken down into loose sprawls,
slights of the auto age. Slowly, though, and over time, 55 incoherent and vacuous for anyone afoot. City
the lesions to my hometown of Boston penetrated my character is blurred until every place becomes more
Line consciousness. As the landscape of the 1970s and the like every other place, all adding up to Noplace. And
5 1980s occupied my writing as an architecture critic, I in the areas most defeated, uses that cannot stand
came to realize that the designs I saw often literally functionally alone—shopping malls, or residences, or
housed more cars than human occupants: that 60 places of public assembly, or centers of work—are
building to building, place to place, office complex to severed from one another.
complex, dwelling to dwelling, every institution and But we blame automobiles for too much.
10 every structure did obeisance to the automobile. Suppose automobiles had never been invented, or
To be sure, Boston’s pedestrians are notable—or that they had been neglected and we traveled instead
notorious—for their assertive stance against the 65 in efficient, convenient, speedy, comfortable,
automobile. Indeed, the word “jaywalking” was mechanized mass transit. Undoubtedly, we would
invented here. On foot, Bostonians bully the car. save immense sums that might be put to better use.
15 Even in this walking hub, however, the 1980s saw the But they might not. Indeed, we would have had
motor vehicle create a sub-city of garages and essentially the same results I just blamed on cars due
parking lots, gnaw the sidewalk, and slick the city’s 70 to the sorry state of conventional urban planning.
surfaces with oil. Garage doors and black hole And then automobiles would have to be invented or
entrances lacerated the street. Walking by the city's would have to be rescued from neglect, for they would
20 newer buildings, the pedestrian is now as likely to be be necessary to spare people from vacuity, danger,
ambushed by a car sliding from some underground and utter institutionalization.
garage as to be visually assaulted by gap-toothed 75 The reason for this is that it is questionable how
parking lots and eerie garage facades. much of the destruction wrought by automobiles on
“Plan for People, Not Just Autos” was the title of cities is really a response to transportation and traffic
25 an article I wrote about this new architecture that needs, and how much of it is owing to sheer
genuflects to the highway. I have watched this disrespect for other city needs, uses, and functions.
deference to the automobile manifest itself in worse
80 Like city builders who face a blank when they try to
ways across the continent. Time after time, I have think of what to do instead of massive building
projects, highway builders and traffic engineers face a
witnessed cities and other environments become
blank when they try to think what they can
30 asphalt encrusted as the urge to hold the cars of
realistically do, day by day, except try to overcome
shoppers or home owners has taken primacy. As
85 traffic kinks as they occur and apply what foresight
economist Donald Shoup summed it up, “Form no
they can toward moving and storing more cars in the
longer follows function, fashion, or even finance. future.
Instead, form follows parking requirements.” In the Good transportation and communication are not
35 end, the car's horizontal needs at rest and in motion only among the most difficult things to achieve; they
mean that architecture is car bound. 90 are also basic necessities. The point of cities is
For us these needs encompass some 200 million multiplicity of choice. It is impossible to take
moving vehicles traveling 2 trillion-plus miles a year advantage of multiplicity of choice without being able
on roads and ramps, along with parking lots for to get around easily. Furthermore, the economic
40 resting. As speed and the search for parking have foundation of cities is trade. Trade in ideas, services,
become the ultimate quests, a new urban axiom has 95 skills, and personnel—and certainly in goods—
evolved: if a city is easy to park in, it’s hard to live in; demands efficient, fluid transportation and
if it’s easy to live in, it’s hard to park in. Architecture communication. The power of mechanized vehicles
critic Lewis Mumford predicted no less more than 40 can make it easier to reconcile great concentrations of
45 years ago: “The right to have access to every building people with efficient movement of people and goods.
in the city by private motorcar in an age when 100 Thus automobiles can hardly be inherent destroyers
everyone possesses such a vehicle is actually the right of cities. In fact, we should see that the car is a
to destroy the city.” potentially exciting and liberating instrument for city
life.
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Which of the following statements best characterizes The author of Passage 1 mentions
the relationship between the two passages? "jaywalking” (line 13) primarily in order to
A) The author of Passage 2 provides additional data A) support a characterization
in support of the argument offered by the author B) defend a practice
of Passage 1.
C) criticize an attitude
B) The author of Passage 2 argues against a
proposal put forth by the author of Passage 1. D) define a term
C) The author of Passage 2 presents a more
evenhanded consideration of a phenomenon
harshly criticized by the author of Passage 1.
D) The author of Passage 2 provides a point-by-
point response to the issues raised by the author
of Passage 1.
5
The attitude of the author of Passage 1 toward "this
deference" (lines 26-27) is primarily one of
A) disdain

2 B) bemusement
C) defensiveness
The author of Passage 2 would most likely argue that
the “lesions" (line 3, Passage 1) D) unconcern

A) are an unfortunate side effect of underutilizing

public transportation
B) can easily be rectified if attention is devoted to
the problem
C) are not solely the result of transportation and
traffic needs
D) are the product of the public's uninformed
political choices 6
As used in line 49, "disturbed" most nearly means
A) baffled
B) destabilized
C) troubled

3 D) disrupted

Which choice provides the best evidence for the

answer to the previous question?
A) Lines 51-53 (“Traffic ... destruction”)
B) Lines 63-66 (“Suppose ... transit”)
C) Lines 75-79 (“The reason ... functions”)
D) Lines 88-90 (“Good ... necessities”)

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Lines 51-61 in Passage 2 ("Traffic ... another") serve Lines 19-23 in Passage 1 (“Walking by ... facades”)
primarily to and lines 53-55 in Passage 2 (“To accommodate ...
afoot”) both primarily serve to
A) trace the origins of a phenomenon
B) mock a prevailing situation A) illustrate a problem
C) defend an intended result B) suggest an action
D) describe a current situation C) defend an alternative
D) describe an approach

8
11
The author of Passage 1 would most likely view the
description of “Noplace" in line 57, Passage 2, as an Passage 1 most directly challenges which of the
following statements from Passage 2 ?
A) unfair characterization of a vexing issue
B) accurate reflection of a state of affairs A) “City character is blurred until every place
becomes more like every other place, all adding
C) illogical conclusion from the available evidence
up to Noplace.” (lines 55-57)
D) unfortunate digression in a compelling
B) “Good transportation and communication are
argument
not only among the most difficult things to
achieve; they are also basic necessities.” (lines
88-90)
C) “Trade in ideas, services, skills, and personnel—
and certainly in goods—demands efficient, fluid
transportation and communication.” (lines
94-97)
9
D) “In fact, we should see that the car is a
In the context of Passage 2, the primary purpose of potentially exciting and liberating instrument
the last paragraph (lines 88-103) is to for city life.” (lines 101-103)
A) emphasize why multiplicity is key to economic
success
B) point out the importance of cars to cities
C) describe how cities can be better designed to
accommodate cars
D) note parallels between the transportation and
communication industries

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Questions 1-11 are based on the following "George Orwell was wrong," writes television

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passages. newscaster Ted Koppel. Koppel's reasoning is
The following adaptations from recent books discuss 45 persuasive: "The media, which Orwell predicted
aspects of television news reportage. Both passages refer to would become the instrument of totalitarian control,
English author George Orwell (1903-1950), whose 1949 [have] become, instead, its nemesis."
novel entitled 1984 warned against a totalitarian
Passage 2
government that controlled all media and thus all "news"
that was reported.
"Now . . . this" is a phrase commonly used on
television newscasts to indicate that what one has just
Passage 1 50 heard or seen has no relevance to what one is about to
Relaying information and images instantly, hear or see, or possibly to anything one is ever likely
television newscasts have allowed viewers to form to hear or see. The phrase acknowledges that the
their own opinions about various political events and world as mapped by television news has no order or
Line political leaders. In many instances, television meaning and is not to be taken seriously. No
5 newscasts have even fostered active dissent from 55 earthquake is so devastating, no political blunder so
established governmental policies. It is no costly, that it cannot be erased from our minds by a
coincidence that, in the 1960's, the civil rights newscaster saying, "Now . . . this." Interrupted by
movement took hold in the United States with the commercials, presented by newscasters with celebrity
advent of television, which was able to convey both status, and advertised like any other product,
10 factual information and such visceral elements as 60 television newscasts transmit news without context,
outrage and determination. Only when all of America without consequences, without values, and therefore
could see, on the nightly newscasts, the civil without essential seriousness; in short, news as pure
disobedience occurring in places like Selma and entertainment. The resulting trivialization of
Montgomery did the issue of civil rights become a information leaves television viewers well entertained,
15 national concern rather than a series of isolated local 65 but not well informed or well prepared to respond to
events. By relaying reports from cities involved to an events.
entire nation of watchers, television showed viewers The species of information created by television is,
the scope of the discontent and informed the in fact, "disinformation." Disinformation does not
disenfranchised that they were not alone. mean false information, but misleading information
20 The ability of television news to foster dissent has 70 —misplaced, irrelevant, fragmented, or superficial
also been affected by increasingly widespread access information — that creates the illusion of knowing
to video cameras, so that the news presented on something, but that actually leads one away from any
television now comes from the bottom up as well as true understanding. In the United States, television
from the top down. Across the world, dissidents have news does not deliberately aim to deprive viewers of a
25 used video equipment to gather visual evidence of 75 coherent understanding of their world. But when
human rights abuses. Uncensored images and news is packaged as entertainment, no such
information have then been transmitted across understanding is possible. The problem is not that
otherwise closed borders by television newscasts. television viewers lack authentic information, but that
One professor of popular culture, Jack Nachbar, they are losing their sense of what a complete body of
30 views the personal video camera as a ''truth-telling 80 information should include.
device that can cut through lies." That claim People are by now so thoroughly adjusted to the
presumes, though, that the television viewer can world of television news — a world of fragments,
believe what he or she sees. But the motivation of the where events stand alone, stripped of any connection
photographer must always be taken into account, and to the past, future, or other events — that all
35 the videotape that appears on television can, like still 85 principles of coherence have vanished. And so has the
photography, be staged and even faked. When and if notion of holding leaders accountable for
propagandists for some government utilize contradictions in their policies. What possible interest
computer-generated effects, viewers will have more could there be in comparing what the President says
trouble believing what they see. However, even if now and what the President said in the past? Such a
40 seeing is not automatically believing, at least seeing is 90 comparison would merely rehash old news and could
seeing — and in some repressive regimes, seeing is hardly be interesting or entertaining.
the fastest road to freedom.

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For all his perspicacity, George Orwell did not 2

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predict this situation; it is not "Orwellian." The
government does not control the newscasts. Lies have Which of the following, if true, would most clearly
95 not been defined as truth, nor truth as lies. All that has strengthen the assertion in Passage 1 about television
happened is that the public has adjusted to and the civil rights movement (lines 11-16) ?
incoherence and has been entertained into A) Many filmed reports of civil disobedience were
indifference. The current situation fits the predictions censored by television executives during the
of Aldous Huxley,* rather than those of Orwell: 1960's.
100 Huxley realized that the government need not conceal
anything from a public that has become insensible to B) Recent studies have questioned the objectivity
contradiction, that has lost any perspective from with which television newscasts presented
which to scrutinize government critically, and that has reports of civil disobedience during the 1960's.
been rendered passive by technological diversions. C) A 1960's poll shows that those Americans who
considered civil rights a national priority had
seen television newscasts of civil disobedience.
*: English novelist and essayist (1894-1963)
D) Many of the reporting techniques used today
originated in newscasts covering the 1960's civil
rights movement.

1
Both passages are primarily concerned with ways in
which 3
A) television newscasts deliberately distort The use of the quotation in lines 43-47 can be
information considered a weakness of the argument in Passage 1
B) television affects viewers by its presentation of because
news A) an irrelevant reason is cited as evidence that
C) viewers of television newscasts can sort out fact television news is beneficial
from fiction B) an attribute of the media that is labeled as
D) governments manage to control television beneficial is in fact destructive
newscasts C) a negative assessment of television news is left
unchallenged
D) a defense of television news is presented by a
television newscaster

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According to Passage 2, television news is presented As used in line 53, “mapped" most nearly means
in a manner that serves to A) verified
A) hold leaders accountable for their policies B) planned in detail
B) entertain viewers C) measured
C) define lies as truth D) defined
D) exaggerate minor political blunders

5 7
Which choice provides the best evidence for the According to Passage 2, television news is presented
answer to the previous question? in a manner that serves to
A) Lines 48-52 (“Now ... see”) A) leading them to act on false information
B) Lines 57-63 (“Interrupted ... entertainment”) B) causing them to become skeptical about
C) Lines 63-73 (“Disinformation ... understanding”) television news
D) Lines 77-80 (“The problem ... include”) C) giving them the mistaken impression that they
are knowledgeable
D) making them susceptible to the commercials
that accompany the news

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Which of the following most accurately describes the The passages differ in their evaluations of television
organization of the last paragraph of Passage 2 ? newscasts in that Passage 1 claims that
A) One view of a situation is refuted and an A) newscasts seek mainly to criticize established
alternative view is substituted. governments, whereas Passage 2 warns that
B) An assertion is made and is supported by means newscasts usually strengthen established
of historical evidence. governments

C) Two authors with contrasting views are B) television news inflames viewers'emotions,
introduced and their views are reconciled. whereas Passage 2 warns that television news
provides false information
D) An argument in favor of one interpretation is set
forth and an opposing interpretation is C) propagandists could falsify the news, whereas
explained. Passage 2 warns that television trivializes the
news
D) repressive governments are using television
news as a means of control, whereas Passage 2
warns that commercial sponsorship biases the
newscasts

9
In each passage, the author assumes that viewers of
television news tend to
A) read about news events as well as watch them 11
B) lack a coherent understanding of their world Both passages refer to George Orwell's predictions
in order to
C) follow only important events
D) accept most of what they see as factual A) show how aspects of Orwell's conception of the
future have become reality
B) point out that the government does not control
television news
C) warn against the control of news media
exercised by governments worldwide
D) illustrate public concerns that television
newscasters themselves have begun to address

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