GRE Full-Length Test - 2

Verbal Section – 2

Select two answers from the given choices that will give two sentences of
equal worth.

1. Despite relying on the well-to-do for commissions, the portrait painter was
no________: he depicted the character of those he painted as he perceived it.

A) hypocrite
B) egotist
C) sycophant
D) adulator
E) braggart
F) coward

2. The judge’s standing in the legal community, though shaken by phony allegations
of wrongdoing, emerged, at long last, _________.

A) unqualified
B) undiminished
C) undecided
D) undamaged
E) unresolved
F) unprincipled

3. If big sums are to be spent on cleaning up environmental disasters, it is better to

spend them on unglamorous but _________ problems such as unsanitary water in
Third World countries.

A) futile
B) ephemeral
C) pressing
D) controversial
E) transitory
F) critical
4. Though feminist in its implications, Yvonne Rainer’s 1974 film __________ the
filmmaker’s active involvement in feminist politics.

A) antedated
B) cloaked
C) portrayed
D) preceded
E) renewed
F) represented

5. A misconception frequently held by novice writers is that sentence structure

mirrors thought: the more convoluted the structure, the more _________ the ideas.

A) complicated
B) engaged
C) essential
D) fanciful
E) inconsequential
F) involved

Read the passage and answer the questions.

Since the 1980s, experts have been claiming that the skill demands of today’s jobs
have outstripped the skills workers possess. Moss and Tilly counter that worker
deficiencies lie less in job-specific skills than in such attributes as motivation,
interpersonal skills, and appropriate work demeanor. However, Handel suggests that
these perceived deficiencies are merely an age effect, arguing that workers pass
through a phase of early adulthood characterized by weak attachment to their jobs.
As they mature, workers grow out of casual work attitudes and adjust to the
workplace norms of jobs that they are more interested in retaining. Significantly,
complaints regarding younger workers have persisted for over two decades, but
similar complaints regarding older workers have not grown as the earlier cohorts
aged.

6. The passage suggests that Moss and Tilly are most likely to disagree with the
“experts” about which of the following?

A) Whether the skills demanded by jobs in the labor market have changed since the
1980s
B) Whether employers think that job-specific skills are as important as such
attributes as motivation and appropriate work demeanor
C) Whether workers in today’s labor market generally live up to the standards and
expectations of employers
D) Whether adequate numbers of workers in the labor market possess the particular
skills demanded by various different jobs
E) Whether most workers are motivated to acquire new skills that are demanded by
the labor market

7. The last sentence serves primarily to

A) suggest that worker deficiencies are likely to become more pronounced in the
future
B) introduce facts that Handel may have failed to take into account
C) cite evidence supporting Handel’s argument about workers
D) show that the worker deficiencies cited by Handel are more than an age effect
E) distinguish certain skills more commonly possessed by young workers from skills
more commonly found among mature workers

Read the passage and answer the following questions.

Much research has been devoted to investigating what motivates consumers to try
new products. Previous consumer research suggests that both the price of a new
product and the way it is advertised affect consumers' perceptions of the product's
performance risk (the possibility that the product will not function as consumers
expect and/or will not provide the desired benefits). Some of this research has
concluded that a relatively high price will reduce a consumer's perception of the
performance risk associated with purchasing a particular product, while other studies
have reported that price has little or no effect on perceived performance risk. These
conflicting findings may simply be due to the nature of product advertisements: a
recent study indicates that the presentation of an advertised message has a
marked effect on the relationship between price and perceived performance risk.

Researchers have identified consumers' perception of the credibility of the source of

an advertised message ─i.e., the manufacturer-as another factor affecting perceived
performance risk: one study found that the greater the source credibility, the lower
the consumer's perception of the risk of purchasing an advertised new product.
However, past research suggests that the relationship between source credibility and
perceived performance risk may be more complex: source credibility may interact
with price in a subtle way to affect consumers' judgments of the performance risk
associated with an advertised product.

8. The passage is primarily concerned with

(A) challenging the implications of previous research into why consumers try new
products
(B) suggesting new marketing strategies for attracting consumers to new products
(C) reconciling two different views about the effect of price on consumers' willingness
to try new products
(D) describing a new approach to researching why consumers try new products
(E) discussing certain findings regarding why consumers try new products

9. Which of the following, if true, would most tend to weaken the conclusions drawn
from "some of this research" highlighted in the passage?

A) In a subsequent study, consumers who were asked to evaluate new products with
relatively low prices had the same perception of the products' performance risk as
did consumers who were shown the same products priced more expensively.
B) In a subsequent study, the quality of the advertising for the products that
consumers perceived as having a lower performance risk was relatively high, while
the quality of the advertising for the products that consumers perceived as having a
higher performance risk was relatively poor.
C) In a subsequent study, the products that consumers perceived as having a lower
performance risk was priced higher than the highest priced products in the previous
research.
D) None of the consumers involved in this research had ever before bought products
from the manufacturers involved in the research.
E) Researchers found that the higher the source credibility for a product, the more
consumers were willing to pay for it.

10. The "past research" highlighted in the passage suggests which of the following
about perceived performance risk?

A) The more expensive a new product is, the more likely consumers may be to credit
advertised claims about that product.
B) The more familiar consumers are with a particular manufacturer, the more willing
they may be to assume some risk in the purchase of a new product being advertised
by that manufacturer.
C) Consumers' perception of the performance risk associated with a new product
being advertised may be influenced by an interplay between the product's price and
the manufacturer's credibility.
D) Consumers may be more likely to believe that a product will function as it is
advertised to do when they have bought products from a particular manufacturer
before.
E) The price of a particular advertised product may have less impact than the
manufacturer's credibility on consumers' assessment of the performance risk
associated with that product.
Read the passage and answer the question.

The binary planet hypothesis—that Earth and the Moon formed simultaneously by
the accretion of smaller objects—does not explain why the Moon’s iron core is so
small relative to the Moon’s total volume, compared with Earth’s core relative to
Earth’s total volume. According to the giant impact hypothesis, the Moon was
created during a collision between Earth and a large object about the size of Mars.
Computer simulations of this impact show that both of the objects would melt in the
impact and the dense core of the impactor would fall as molten rock into the liquefied
iron core of Earth. The ejected matter—mantle rock that had surrounded the cores of
both objects—would be almost devoid of iron. This matter would become the Moon.

11. The giant-impact hypothesis as described in the passage answers all of the
following questions EXCEPT:

A) What happened to the rock that surrounded the impactor’s core after the impactor
hit Earth?
B) What happened to the impactor’s core after the impactor hit Earth?
C) Where did the impactor that collided with Earth originate?
D) Why is the Moon’s iron core small relative to that of Earth?
E) What was the size of the impactor relative to that of Mars?

12. Which of the following best describes the organization of the passage?

A) The development of one theory into another is outlined.

B) Two explanations are provided, both of which are revealed as inadequate.
C) A theory is presented, and then evidence that undermines that theory is
discussed.
D) Similarities and differences between two theories are described.
E) A flawed hypothesis is introduced, and then an alternative hypothesis is
presented.

Read the passage and answer the question.

The plant called the scarlet gilia can have either red or white flowers. It had long
been thought that hummingbirds, which forage by day, pollinate its red flowers and
that hawkmoths, which forage at night, pollinate its white flowers. To try to show that
this pattern of pollination by colors exists, scientists recently covered some scarlet
gilia flowers only at night and others only by day: plants with red flowers covered at
night became pollinated; plants with white flowers covered by day became
pollinated.
13. Which of the following, if true, would be additional evidence to suggest that
hummingbirds are attracted to the red flowers and hawkmoths to the white flowers of
the scarlet gilia?

A) Uncovered scarlet gilia flowers, whether red or white, became pollinated at

approximately equal rates.
B) Some red flowers of the scarlet gilia that remained uncovered at all times never
became pollinated.
C)White flowers of the scarlet gilia that were covered at night became pollinated with
greater frequency than white flowers of the scarlet gilia that were left uncovered.
D) Scarlet gilia plants with red flowers covered by day and scarlet gilia plants with
white flowers covered at night remained unpollinated.
E) In late August, when most of the hummingbirds had migrated but hawkmoths
were still plentiful, red scarlet gilia plants produced fruit more frequently than they
had earlier in the season.

Select any one answer from the given choices to complete the sentence.

14. For most of the first half of the nineteenth century, science at the university was
in (i) _________ state, despite the presence of numerous luminaries.

Blank i

a) a scintillating

b) a pathetic

c) a controversial

d) an incendiary

e) a veracious

15. In her later years, Bertha Pappenheim was an apostle of noble but already
(i)__________ notions, always respected for her integrity, her energy, and her
resolve but increasingly out of step and ultimately (ii)__________ even her own
organization.

Blank (i) Blank (ii)

A) anachronistic D) emulated by

B) accepted E) appreciated by
 C) exotic F) alienated from
16. Just as the authors’ book on eels is often a key text for courses in marine
vertebrate zoology, their ideas on animal development and phylogeny (i)
__________teaching in this area.

Blank (i)

A) prevent

B) defy

C) replicate

D) inform

E) use

17. Rather than viewing the Massachusetts Bay Colony’s antinomian controversy as
the inevitable (i)________ of the intransigent opposing forces of radical and
(ii)________ beliefs, male and female piety, (iii)________ and secular power, and
the like, as other critics have, Winship argues that the crisis was not “fixed and
structural.”

Blank (i) Blank (ii) Blank (iii)

A) dissolution D) revolutionary G) clerical

B) melding E) orthodox H) civil

C) collision F) questionable I) cerebral

18. The eyes of the mantis shrimp have more types of photoreceptors, or color-
detecting cells, than those of any other animal on the planet. While one would think
that this would allow the mantis shrimp to better (i) _________ colors, researchers
have found this to be (ii) _________

Blank i Blank ii

A) blank D) baseless

B) discriminate E) obvious

C) distort F) illiberal
Read the passage and answer the following questions.

In early-twentieth-century England, it was fashionable to claim that only a completely

new style of writing could address a world undergoing unprecedented
transformation-just as one literary critic recently claimed that only the new " aesthetic
of exploratory excess " can address a world undergoing.. well, you know. Yet in
early-twentieth-century England, T.S.Eliot, a man fascinated by the " presence " of
the past, wrote the most innovative poetry of his time. The lesson for today's literary
community seems obvious: a reorientation toward tradition would benefit writers no
less than readers. But if our writers and critics indeed respect the novel's rich
tradition (as they claim to), then why do they disdain the urge to tell an exciting
story?

19. In the context of the passage as a whole, " address " is closest in meaning to

A) reveal
B) belie
C) speak to
D) direct attention toward
E) attempt to remediate

20. The author of the passage suggests that present-day readers would particularly
benefit from which of the following changes on the part of present-day writers and
critics?

A) An increased focus on the importance of engaging the audience in a narrative.

B) Modernization of the traditional novelistic elements already familiar to readers.
C) Embracing aspects of fiction that are generally peripheral to the interest of
readers.
D) A greater recognition of how the tradition of the novel has changed over time.
E) A better understanding of how certain poets such as Eliot have influenced fiction
of the present time.