1. Ohio started the month of July with its pedal to the metal. The Buckeye State became the 34th state to adopt the 70 miles-an-hour speed limit. Drivers can now do up to 70 on more than 570 of Ohio's 1,332 miles of interstate highway. Congress repealed the 55 mph national limit in 1995. Despite predictions of calamity and carnage on the highways, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration reported in October 1998 that 'the traffic death rate dropped to a record low level in 1997'. That pattern has continued since then. You can infer from this paragrah that higher speed limits _______________ the traffic death rate.

2. Deadweight tonnage is a measure of how much weight a ship is carrying or can safely carry. It is the sum of the weights of cargo, fuel, fresh water, ballast water, provisions, passengers, and crew. Which of the following does NOT go into the calculation of deadweight tonnage?

3. Six years ago, lawyer-banker-scholar Charles Morris wrote a prophetic book -'Two-Trillion-Dollar Meltdown: Easy Money, High-Rollers and the Great Credit Crunch' -that foresaw the 2008 Great Recession before it clobbered America and the world. Now Morris has reversed course and sees good times ahead. His forthcoming book, 'Comeback,' predicts that surging U.S. energy independence will bring a buoyant rise in American manufacturing and jobs. The implication of this passage is that you should pay attention to Charles Morris because:

4. Plasma is one of the four fundamental states of matter (the others being solid, liquid, and gas). Heating a gas may ionize its molecules or atoms (reducing or increasing the number of electrons in them), thus turning it into a plasma, which contains charged particles: positive ions and negative electrons or ions. What does the word 'state' most closely mean in the context of this paragraph?

5. On Monday, after a long quarter-century, West Virginians said goodbye to their state's 6 percent food tax. Now to see what, if any, business we've been missing. In 1989, retailers warned that sales in West Virginia would go down if legislators imposed a 6 percent tax on food. 'Whatever they put on would be passed on to the consumer,' Charles Forth, who owned supermarkets in both West Virginia and Ohio, told the newspaper in February 1989. 'Six percent is $6 on $100. That will make a difference when people are already hurting and trying to make ends meet.' It's a lot easier to drive customers away than to win them back, a fact legislators should bear in mind when it comes to taxation. The author is _______________ that eliminating the 6 percent food tax will bring customers back to West Virginia stores.

6. The expert predicted that America's gross domestic product will return to more than 3 percent yearly expansion. For example, Dow Chemical is investing $4 billion in Texas plastics production that will be operational by 2017. Such growth requires cheap oil and natural gas -and by 2020 or so, the United States will surpass Saudi Arabia in oil output, and Russia in gas. He continued: 'The big attraction is the low price of natural gas, the lowest-carbon fossil fuel, which can be produced profitably at about a third the price per unit of energy as other hydrocarbons. That is particularly attractive to chemical companies. It is the raw material for plastics, Styrofoam, tires, sealants, adhesives, films, liquid crystal screens, nylons, polyesters -nearly everything around us. ' In this passage, what's going to cause America's future growth?

7. A thin transparent layer of oxide protects the metal titanium against corrosion. The same thin layer attracts artists interested in making their art with the help of technology. By using heat or electricity, an artist can thicken the oxide layer and thereby turn the metal a range of vivid colors. According to the passage, some artists work with titanium because it

8. In certain areas, water is so scarce that every attempt is made to conserve it. For instance, on one oasis in the Sahara Desert the amount of water necessary for each date palm tree has been carefully determined. How much water should each tree be given?

9. Mercury is the closest planet to the sun. As such, it circles the sun faster than all the other planets, which is why Romans named it after the swift-footed messenger god Mercury. Mercury was known since at least Sumerian times roughly 5,000 years ago, where it was often associated with Nabu, the god of writing. Mercury was also given separate names for its appearance as both a morning star and as an evening star. Greek astronomers knew, however, that the two names referred to the same body. Heraclitus believed that both Mercury and Venus orbited the Sun, not the Earth. According to this passage:

10. In linguistics, the comparative method is a technique for studying the development of languages by performing a feature-by-feature comparison of two or more languages with common descent from a shared ancestor, as opposed to the method of internal reconstruction, which analyzes the internal development of a single language over time. Which of the following would be the most useful for someone using the comparitive method in linguistics when studying a particular language:

11. The 1980 New York Mets season was the 19th regular season for the Mets, who played home games at Shea Stadium. Led by manager Joe Torre, the team had a 67-95 record, yielding a 5th place finish in the National League East. In this paragraph's context, the word 'yielding' most closely means:

12. Conan of Aquilonia is a collection of four linked fantasy short stories written by L. Sprague de Camp and Lin Carter featuring Robert E. Howard's seminal sword and sorcery hero Conan the Barbarian. The stories were originally published in Fantastic for August 1972, July 1973, July 1974, and February, 1975. The collected stories were intended for book publication by Lancer Books, but this edition never appeared due to Lancer's bankruptcy. The first book edition was issued in paperback by Ace Books in May 1977 and the first British edition was published by Sphere Books in October 1978. Which publication did NOT publish content from this series of short stories?

13. Volunteer hosts went to the airport, picked up assigned students, fed them dinner, took them to the opening lecture at the Clay Center, put them in spare bedrooms for the night, then fed them breakfast this morning and will deliver the outstanding teens to buses that convey them to the mountain retreat where they undergo a month of intensive science training and outdoor fun. Luckily, this year, enough local families volunteered to host all the brilliant youths. In the past, the number of guest homes sometimes fell short, and some of the visitors slept on cots and sleeping bags at local churches. They're adventurous teens and don't mind this makeshift camp-in but it's better if friendly hosts give them a more personal welcome for their stay. Which of the following topics would the next paragraph in this passage most likely cover?

14. The Doppler effect (or Doppler shift), named after the Austrian physicist Christian Doppler, who proposed it in 1842 in Prague, is the change in frequency of a wave (or other periodic event) for an observer moving relative to its source. It is commonly heard when a vehicle sounding a siren or horn approaches, passes, and recedes from an observer. The received frequency is higher (compared to the emitted frequency) during the approach, it is identical at the instant of passing by, and it is lower during the recession. In this paragraph, what is 'relative'?

15. Speed skating is a competitive form of ice skating in which the competitors race each other in traveling a certain distance on skates. Types of speed skating are long track speed skating, short track speed skating, and marathon speed skating. Short track speed skating takes place on a smaller rink, normally the size of an ice hockey rink. Distances are shorter than in long track racing, with the longest Olympic race being 3000 meters. Races are usually held as knockouts, with the best two in heats of four or five qualifying for the final race, where medals are awarded. Disqualifications and falls are not uncommon. The sport originates from pack-style events held in North America and was officially sanctioned in the 1970s, becoming an Olympic sport in 1992. Although this form of speed skating is newer, it is growing faster than long track speed skating, largely because short track can be done on an ice hockey rink rather than a long-track oval. What does the auther cite as the reason that short track speed skating is growing faster than long-track speed skating?

16. Twenty-five percent of all household burglaries can be attributed to unlocked windows or doors. Crime is the result of opportunity plus desire. To prevent crime, it is each individual's responsibility to

17. The 1980 New York Mets season was the 19th regular season for the Mets, who played home games at Shea Stadium. Led by manager Joe Torre, the team had a 67-95 record, yielding a 5th place finish in the National League East. In this paragraph's context, the word 'yielding' most closely means:

18. Plasma is one of the four fundamental states of matter (the others being solid, liquid, and gas). Heating a gas may ionize its molecules or atoms (reducing or increasing the number of electrons in them), thus turning it into a plasma, which contains charged particles: positive ions and negative electrons or ions. What does the word 'state' most closely mean in the context of this paragraph?

19. War Horse is a children's novel by Michael Morpurgo. It was first published in Great Britain by Kaye & Ward in 1982. The story recounts the experiences of Joey, a horse purchased by the Army for service in World War I France and the attempts of young Albert, his previous owner, to bring him safely home. It formed the basis of both an award winning play (2007) and an acclaimed film (2011). Which of the following is NOT true about this novel?

20. Warren Wilfred Freer (27 December 1920 -29 March 2013), was a New Zealand politician and member of the Labour Party. Freer represented the Mount Albert electorate in Parliament from 1947 to 1981, when he retired. He was only 26 when he entered Parliament in a by-election for the Mount Albert seat following the death of Arthur Richards, and he held the seat for 34 years until he was succeeded by Helen Clark and then David Shearer. He was a cabinet minister in the Third Labour Government of 1972-1975, holding the portfolios of Trade and Industry and of Energy Resources and was a candidate for the deputy leadership of the New Zealand Labour Party in 1974, dropping out in the third ballot. In 1955 he was the first Western politician to visit China. According to this passage:

21. The South Shore Estuary is an estuary located along the south shore of Long Island, between the mainland and the outer barrier islands, in eastern New York state. It stretches for over 70 miles (110 km) from West Bay in Nassau County to the Shinnecock Bay in Suffolk County. According to this passage where is the South Shore Estuary located?

22. A perennial stream or perennial river is a stream or river (channel) that has continuous flow in parts of its stream bed all year round during years of normal rainfall. 'Perennial' streams are contrasted with 'intermittent' streams which normally cease flowing for weeks or months each year, and with 'ephemeral' channels that flow only for hours or days following rainfall. Which of the following is the correct order of stream type from the least amount of time flowing to the most amount of time flowing over the course of a year?

23. The orientation of a large expanse of glass in a house is important. Improperly positioned, it can cost precious fuel dollars, whereas good orientation can minimize heat lost in the winter and gained in the summer. The best direction to face is south, to make good use of solar energy. Since the sun is low in the southern sky during the winter, orienting any glass in that direction will allow light to shine through and help heat the home. During the summer, the sun is higher in the sky, and an overhang from the roof will shield the glass from direct sunlight. According to the passage, large expanses of glass should be positioned to

24. Longtime Attorney General Darrell McGraw was a fierce enforcer of state consumer protection laws, winning billions from firms and fly-by-night outfits that committed consumer violations. For West Virginia illness and death caused by cigarettes, McGraw won two lawsuit settlements from 23 tobacco firms for $1.7 billion and $200 million. In 2002, McGraw won $56 million from 15 coal companies that used independent contractors"to duck state workers' compensation obligations. A company who has violated state consumer protection laws in West Virginia would likely have which of the following opinions of Mr. McGraw?"

25. The Urnero (Leptodactylus latinasus) is a species of frog in the Leptodactylidae family. It is found in Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Paraguay, and Uruguay. Its natural habitats are subtropical or tropical moist shrubland, subtropical or tropical dry lowland grassland, subtropical or tropical seasonally wet or flooded lowland grassland, freshwater marshes, intermittent freshwater marshes, pastureland, rural gardens, and ponds. What can you conclude about the Urnero?